Our choice for Denver mayor in the April 4 election, Kelly Brough, will be most effective if she can work with a City Council that helps her build momentum for tackling the city’s most pressing priorities – crime, homelessness and housing being among them. Voters, meanwhile, want a council that listens, and heeds, them.

Please consider our recommendations below for Denver City Council on the April 4 ballot. (We are only endorsing in races with contested seats.)

Council District 1 – Amanda Sandoval. As the District 1 incumbent, Sandoval has deep roots in her native northwest Denver and champions its neighborhoods. She lives up to her own billing as a true “voice for District 1.” As for the most pressing citywide concern, rising crime, she aims, as her campaign website says, “to make sure our police, fire and paramedics have proper funding in order to ensure those who protect us have the necessary resources needed to perform.” Vote for Amanda Sandoval.

Council District 2 – Kevin Flynn. District 2 incumbent Flynn has been one of the level heads on the council – some of whose members at times have seemed to operate in an alternative reality. What is especially appealing about Flynn is his stalwart support for Denver police and, more generally, law and order, even as some other council members forsook them. Flynn has supported police pay raises in refreshing contrast to the many Colorado elected officials who have undermined police morale and recruitment efforts. Flynn wisely opposes so-called “safe-injection” sites that only feed drug users’ habits. Vote of Kevin Flynn.

Council District 4 – Diana Romero Campbell. Romero Campbell’s bid for the open seat in southeastern-most Denver is her second run for office; she ran unsuccessfully for the Denver Public Schools board two years ago and impressed us with her grasp of policy and support for educational opportunity. As a council candidate she consistently has called for support for police efforts to curb the city’s crime wave, and she takes a firm stance against absurd efforts the past couple of years to defund police. Vote for Diana Romero Campbell.

Council District 5 – Amanda Sawyer. Sawyer is the district incumbent and, like Sandoval, champions her district’s neighborhoods and quality of life. She stood out on council in opposing the ridiculous “Safe Outdoor Space” program setting up city-sanctioned camps for street dwellers. She knew they are a dead end that don’t cure what ails campers – addiction and mental illness – and that they undermine nearby neighborhoods. Her willingness to dissent from the official line on Denver’s demeaning street camps shows backbone. It’s worth keeping on council. Vote for Amanda Sawyer.

Council District 7 – Arthur May. Like a whole lot of Denverites, May wants the city’s oft-ignored camping ban enforced. And he sees the crime fight as the city’s top challenge. District 7, and the council, need someone who sets priorities rather than daydreaming about equity and social justice. Vote for Arthur May for the District 7 open seat.

Council District 8 – Brad Revare. He sees himself as an innovator who will bring creative yet practical solutions to the table in tackling the city’s challenges. As his website notes, he helped create a youth apprenticeship program, and he led a partnership with City Hall to train public employees in innovation and entrepreneurial thinking to provide better services to support the unhoused, increase composting rates, and other improvements. Vote for Brad Revare for the open District 8 seat on council.

Council District 9 – Darrell Watson. District 9’s current council member, an antagonist of law enforcement, has been an embarrassment to the district and the city and has left District 9 without effective representation. Watson, by contrast, wants to jump in the game and make life better, and safer, in a part of the city hit especially hard by Colorado’s crime wave. He wants to fully fund police, step up recruitment, and enforce the law. “We need to make changes now,” he says on his campaign website. It’s the tonic for what ails District 9. Vote for Darrell Watson.

Council District 10 – Chris Hinds. Incumbent Hinds has represented the district since 2019 and just might hold the record for sheer number of endorsements. They come from wide-ranging stakeholders – organized labor, assorted governing bodies and the Democratic Party as well as the city’s badly outnumbered GOP. The Denver Police Protective Association supports him, too. The council needs that kind of a uniter. Vote for Chris Hinds.

Council members at large (vote for two) – Travis Leiker, Tim Hoffman. Leiker, who received the endorsement of the Denver Police Protective Association, wants new centralized training facilities for police and other first responders; he supports a nationwide recruitment plan to address gross understaffing, and he seeks, “a better relationship between law enforcement and the community.” Hoffman, a prosecutor in the Denver District Attorney’s Office, knows the crime fight inside out and wants to hold serious perpetrators accountable. Vote for Travis Leiker and Tim Hoffman.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board