Perhaps it’s a matter of Hertz versus Avis with the number-two entity always finding it necessary to “try harder.”

In this case, the mayoral election in the state’s second largest city, Colorado Springs, was far more interesting and likely consequential than Denver’s Tweedledee and Tweedledum race at last now at its finish line.

Blessing Yemi Mobolade, his given name, a Nigerian immigrant who just became an American citizen six years ago, is about to be sworn in as mayor of the staid, conservative bastion at the foot of Pikes Peak. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a break from the norm. That constitutes news.

Running simply as Yemi, the single-name treatment usually reserved for rock stars, Mobolade did not just win; he triumphed over an able but tired Wayne Williams. A full 15-point victory is a drubbing and a profound statement made even stronger by taking place on what would seem to be tough terrain.

JFK famously said, “Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.” The post-mortems of Mobolade’s romp certainly illustrate the point.

Democrats across Colorado are touting Mobolade’s big win as indication of a coming blue takeover of El Paso County. This despite the fact that Mobolade, an unaffiliated voter, is not even part of their party.

Williams’s campaign manager based his explanation for the shellacking on a slew of tactical constraints.

The reality, I’d suggest, is far more complicated and even organic. Indeed, the politics and demographics of El Paso County are changing. Democrats are getting elected to legislative seats here and there. Gov. Jared Polis lost the county last fall by only three points and actually prevailed within the city limits.

Most tellingly, 48 percent of county voters are not affiliated with any party and that number is on the rise soon to be over half. There is still a red tint to most elections, but it is far from the overwhelming crimson of yesteryear.

Then, of course, there is the knows-no-end dysfunction of the local and state GOP operation. When the likes of new State Republican Chair Dave Williams and right-wing firebrand Gordon Klingenschmitt are enlisted in the final days to bail out Wayne Williams’s candidacy, you are in a world of hurt.

The die may well have been cast before the first round election in early April when rival groups of developers who had long enjoyed outsized influence funded massive independent expenditure efforts. One such group supported Williams; the other backed prominent Republican Sallie Clark. The mutual savagery was intense and all but ensured that there would be no putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Mobolade’s chief strategist called it a case of “self-immolation.”

So if the standard-issue narratives are inadequate, what did take place? For insight, I turned to that lead Mobolade adviser, Springs-based consultant Anthony Carlson.

Carlson is an interesting sort, a Democrat who remains close to his Trump-loving evangelical Christian mother and retired military father in small-town Texas. He continues to be shaped by that upbringing.

While one gets the sense that Carlson can be as hard-bitten as any operative, he openly pines for a different kind of politics marked by unusual coalitions, mutual interests and something other than the constant noise and partisan warfare.

On the surface, Mobolade achieved that in his campaign apparatus. Carlson handled the big-picture strategy while salon owner and Trump supporter, Niki Cicak, made the train run as the day-to-day manager.

With a field coordinator later added to the mix, they were the only ones drawing a campaign check. Beyond them, it was an effort fueled by volunteers.

Carlson recalled counseling Mobolade early on, “You are not a conventional candidate and you cannot run a conventional campaign.”

They were true to their word. While other candidates concentrated on water issues that had grown central to city council deliberations, Mobolade understood that many voters were more focused on safety, rising home costs and lagging infrastructure.

But this was not just an election about a checklist of issues. It was a statement of aspiration by Colorado Springs voters for something new and different. Mobolade’s classic immigrant story of chasing the American dream resonated with a whole lot of voters for whom that dream seemed ever harder to attain.

In the final weeks, lagging in the polls, Williams went the expected, conventional route with negative ads accusing Mobolade of being a socialist who would bring the problems of Denver 70 miles south. However, Mobolade’s own ads featuring endorsements from prior opponent Clark as well as former Republican sheriff Bill Elder provided more than ample inoculation.

Carlson talked of waking up on the morning of election day feeling confident of a three to four point victory. No one, least of all him, thought 15 points was in the cards.

In my own take, Williams and his backers went with the usually reliable tactic of making the race a choice between left and right. But voters, by huge numbers, saw the election through a different frame as a contrast between stale and fresh.

On Tuesday, a new, different, fresh era opens in Colorado Springs.

A footnote this week, also centered in my old hometown.

Though recent graduates of the alma mater, Colorado College, have now scattered, a word of chastisement is necessary for how many of them greeted their commencement speaker, CC alum and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney. By reports, nearly half the graduating class turned their chairs around to face away from Cheney during her speech.

Profiles in political courage are all too rare these days. But Cheney is one, having sacrificed a congressional career to speak truth to Donald Trump and hold him accountable for attempting to violate the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Part of maturity is a sense of proportion. Cheney’s Republican voting record may not have corresponded with the sensitivities of much of the class. Fair enough. But to disrespect her is to put routine political differences ahead of existential threats.

For CC graduates who engaged in these misguided theatrics: Congrats on your diploma. Now grow up.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for Colorado Politics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at?EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann