Today is April 5, 2023 and here is what you need to know:

Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough – the two Denver mayoral candidates who attracted the most financial support – appear headed toward a runoff in June after taking commanding leads in the Tuesday election.

Though the tally continued on into the night, the two candidates cleared the field early in the count, catapulting to the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, with only a few thousand votes separating them. 

At past 10 p.m., Johnson secured 25% of roughly 104,000 votes cast. Brough came in second with 22.5%. With a turnout of about 158,000 voters expected, early returns represented about 69% of the vote total.

Trailing behind the two is a cluster of candidates that includes Lisa Calderon at 15% and Andy Rougeot at 13%. Rep. Leslie Herod has so far secured 9%.

Colorado Springs mayoral candidates Yemi Mobolade and Wayne Williams are the top two vote-getters, according to unofficial results posted at 10:40 p.m. Tuesday, likely heading to a runoff election after no one in the crowded 12-person race received more than 50% of the vote.

Unofficial general election results from the City Clerk’s Office show Mobolade, a West African immigrant, entrepreneur and political newcomer, had about 28.9% of the vote, while Williams, a city councilman and former El Paso County commissioner and Colorado secretary of state, received about 20.1%. 

If those results hold throughout the counting of ballots, they would move into a second round that will determine who will become the city’s next top leader, a runoff election on May 16.

The former Park Hill Golf Course would stay undeveloped for now, if margins as of early returns in the 2O ballot measure hold steady.

Early and unofficial results showed voters rejecting a ballot measure to lift a conservation easement on the property by a margin of more than 20 percentage points.

The “no” vote led, 60.3% to 39.7%, in the first batch of votes released shortly after polls closed.

By an 8:30 p.m. update, the “no” votes still led with 60.3%,while supporters held nearly 39.7%, although the latest tally included only a few thousand additional ballots. By 10 p.m., the tally stood at 60.4% against, and 39.6% for, with 102,398 ballots counted. 

The measure’s proponents conceded the race shortly before 11 p.m. 

“The Park Hill Golf Course will forever be a case study in missed opportunities,” the “yes” campaign said. “With historically low turnout, Denver has rejected its single best opportunity to build new affordable housing and create new public parks. Thousands of Denverites who urgently need more affordable housing are now at even greater risk of displacement.” 

In one of the more hotly contested Denver City Council seat races, District 9 Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca, the incumbent, trailed challenger Darrell Watson by 233 votes – 42.7% to 45.4% on Tuesday night.

The pair will likely head to the runoff election June 6.

We’re here to “build power in our cities, to build a movement that is strategic,” CdeBaca said at an election night watch party at Town Hall Collab.

She showed confidence in voters pushing her to victory.

“Our people are going to come for us. They’ve got our back. They’re busy, they’re working, and that’s why we’re fighting,” CdeBaca said. “But they’re showing up today.”

All-day negotiations between House Democrats and Republicans resulted in a late-afternoon deal Tuesday that would give tired lawmakers in the Colorado House a much-needed three day weekend, along with concessions from Democrats on seven priority GOP amendments to the state’s spending plan. 

In fact, the deal is more than that. Republicans agreed – although at times that agreement appeared to be pretty fragile – not to ask for reading the 622-page state budget bill at length either during Tuesday’s debate and when it comes up for a final vote, which is likely on Wednesday.

Lawmakers spent the entire day working on the 2023-24 budget, which started at $38.5 billion a week ago, adding about two dozen amendments and at least $105 million in general fund spending.

The state budget bill, Senate Bill 23-214, arrived Tuesday on the House floor “clean,” following work on Monday by the House Appropriations Committee, which is chaired by the Joint Budget Committee’s Rep. Emily Sirota, D-Denver. The appropriations committee struck all the amendments added to the budget by the Senate last week.

House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle put 14 of those 17 amendments right back into the budget – over the objections of JBC members.