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Incumbents hold sway in council races
  
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By Peter Jones
One new councilmember will join four returning incumbents on the Centennial City Council.
District 1
Conservative Ron Phelps’s narrow victory in the crowded special-election contest to fill a vacant District 1 city council seat may be a sign of an evolving political climate in west Centennial.
Phelps defeated former Councilmember Vorry Moon by a narrow 42 votes on Nov. 3. But that may have been because two other Republicans who also touted Phelps’s brand of fiscal conservatism, also took competing percentages of the vote, effectively creating a three-candidate race against Moon, a Democratic activist.
Centennial city races are officially nonpartisan, but in recent years party politics has increasingly played a role. A total of seven candidates competed.
Phelps’s supporters have suggested that the candidate would have likely won the race by a landslide without the Republican competition.
“There is a huge majority of support for the candidates who spoke and campaigned for small and limited government,” Phelps wrote after the election in an e-mail to his six opponents. “Although unscientific, totally those votes equate to a mandate to keep Centennial city government limited — approximately 65 percent of the total vote.”
In the days following the election, several former District 1 candidates wrote widely distributed e-mails expressing support for Phelps. Moon and Democrat Michael Hall were not among them.
Moon, who was elected to council in 2003 before being defeated by his onetime council colleague, Betty Ann Hamilton, two years ago, concedes the tide may have shifted against him in District 1.
“There’s a very partisan group here in District 1 and you can’t overcome that easily,” Moon said. “But after the first snowstorm, they’re going to want big government to come in and clear their streets for them.”
Similar political dynamics emerged two years ago when Phelps and Hamilton [then Habig] waged challenges against Moon, then the incumbent. Before Election Day 2007, Phelps announced he would quit campaigning and back Hamilton, fearing the two would split the conservative vote and re-elect Moon.
Sonni Marbury, a Republican activist who received the endorsement of former GOP state Sen. Steve Ward among others, took a distant third place, receiving about 18.5 percent of the vote — trailing Moon by 11 percentage points.
During candidate forums, Moon was often the odd man out, expressing support for home rule and modest code enforcement — mainstream views among most sitting council members — but opposed by most of his challengers.
Centennial’s home-rule charter received voter approval by a greater than 2-to-1 margin in a special election last year.
Phelps, in part, interprets his win as support for protecting neighborhoods in Centennial’s oldest areas
“District 1 is standing up for property values and for the environment they moved into 40 years ago,” he said. “That translates to a more conservative approach than a heavy city government approach. Neighbors first, city last.”
The eight District 1 hopefuls were vying to finish the final two years in the term of Hamilton, who resigned in August after moving out of the district.
Phelps is a member of the city’s open-space advisory committee, among other civic associations. Last year, he actively campaigned against the home-rule charter.
Because this was a special election to replace a resigning councilmember, Phelps is expected to take office Dec. 7. Other winners will be sworn-in Jan. 11.
Moon is noncommittal about future runs for office.
“I’m just enjoying not having to go out and campaign today,” he said.
In contrast to the crowded special election, incumbent District 1 Councilmember Rick Dindinger ran for a second term unopposed.
District 2
Incumbent Sue Bosier easily won a second term representing neighboring District 2, defeating first-time challenger Scott Watters by almost 30 percentage points.
Bosier credits her volunteers staff — not the benefits of incumbency — for her landslide victory.
“I was very fortunate to have a really good team out there helping me and it paid off,” she said. “One of my volunteers walked 68 miles.”
During her first term, Bosier was not shy about defying her colleagues. She was one of only two councilmembers to publicly oppose the city’s home-rule charter passed by voters last year.
Although serving on the nonpartisan city council has been Bosier’s first foray into elected office, she has been no stranger to politics in Arapahoe County. The ex-wife of a Centennial “founder,” former County Assessor Ed Bosier, is a longtime Republican activist.
District 3
Unlike in District 1, a partisan approach was not successful in central Centennial’s District 3, where incumbent Rebecca McClellan won re-election by 18 percentage points.
McClellan, who was a delegate for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention last year, had been challenged by Republican activist Cindy Combs who had largely centered her candidacy on her party affiliation in the GOP-heavy district.
“It’s substance over partisanship,” McClellan said of her victory. “People are reading the Citizen, paying attention, going to council meetings. I think they’re looking past partisanship and looking at the decisions we’re really making.”
The councilmember, who served as mayor pro tem last year, is known for her passionate representation of district residents, though she has recently raised the ire of some colleagues over her protests of an underpass idea.
McClellan, Centennial’s representative on the Arapahoe Road/Interstate 25 Interchange Coalition, has vigorously protested an initiative to build an I-25 underpass at Alton Way to help ease congestion on Arapahoe. McClellan’s critics have accused her of grandstanding, saying the city is not taking the idea seriously anyway.
McClellan’s other council-related activities have included serving on the legislative policy committee of the Colorado Municipal League and representing Centennial at the National League of Cities in Washington, D.C.
Incumbent Ron Weidmann ran for re-election unopposed in Centennial’s far eastern District 4.
By the numbers
MAYOR
Cathy Noon 9,561 48.4%
Todd Miller 8,158 41.3%
Mike Weber 1,149 5.8%
Greg Schoenfeld 886 4.5%
DISTRICT 1
Ron Phelps 1,504 30.3%
Vorry Moon 1,462 29.5%
Sonni Marbury 916 18%
Sharon West 550 12%
Pete Cooney 296 6%
Michael Hall 158 3.2%
Gary Furnee 77 1.5%
DISTRICT 2
Sue Bosier 3,084 65%
Scott Watters 1,671 35%
DISTRICT 3
Rebecca McClellan 3,227 59%
Cindy Combs 2,228 41%
District 1
Conservative Ron Phelps’s narrow victory in the crowded special-election contest to fill a vacant District 1 city council seat may be a sign of an evolving political climate in west Centennial.
Phelps defeated former Councilmember Vorry Moon by a narrow 42 votes on Nov. 3. But that may have been because two other Republicans who also touted Phelps’s brand of fiscal conservatism, also took competing percentages of the vote, effectively creating a three-candidate race against Moon, a Democratic activist.
Centennial city races are officially nonpartisan, but in recent years party politics has increasingly played a role. A total of seven candidates competed.
Phelps’s supporters have suggested that the candidate would have likely won the race by a landslide without the Republican competition.
“There is a huge majority of support for the candidates who spoke and campaigned for small and limited government,” Phelps wrote after the election in an e-mail to his six opponents. “Although unscientific, totally those votes equate to a mandate to keep Centennial city government limited — approximately 65 percent of the total vote.”
In the days following the election, several former District 1 candidates wrote widely distributed e-mails expressing support for Phelps. Moon and Democrat Michael Hall were not among them.
Moon, who was elected to council in 2003 before being defeated by his onetime council colleague, Betty Ann Hamilton, two years ago, concedes the tide may have shifted against him in District 1.
“There’s a very partisan group here in District 1 and you can’t overcome that easily,” Moon said. “But after the first snowstorm, they’re going to want big government to come in and clear their streets for them.”
Similar political dynamics emerged two years ago when Phelps and Hamilton [then Habig] waged challenges against Moon, then the incumbent. Before Election Day 2007, Phelps announced he would quit campaigning and back Hamilton, fearing the two would split the conservative vote and re-elect Moon.
Sonni Marbury, a Republican activist who received the endorsement of former GOP state Sen. Steve Ward among others, took a distant third place, receiving about 18.5 percent of the vote — trailing Moon by 11 percentage points.
During candidate forums, Moon was often the odd man out, expressing support for home rule and modest code enforcement — mainstream views among most sitting council members — but opposed by most of his challengers.
Centennial’s home-rule charter received voter approval by a greater than 2-to-1 margin in a special election last year.
Phelps, in part, interprets his win as support for protecting neighborhoods in Centennial’s oldest areas
“District 1 is standing up for property values and for the environment they moved into 40 years ago,” he said. “That translates to a more conservative approach than a heavy city government approach. Neighbors first, city last.”
The eight District 1 hopefuls were vying to finish the final two years in the term of Hamilton, who resigned in August after moving out of the district.
Phelps is a member of the city’s open-space advisory committee, among other civic associations. Last year, he actively campaigned against the home-rule charter.
Because this was a special election to replace a resigning councilmember, Phelps is expected to take office Dec. 7. Other winners will be sworn-in Jan. 11.
Moon is noncommittal about future runs for office.
“I’m just enjoying not having to go out and campaign today,” he said.
In contrast to the crowded special election, incumbent District 1 Councilmember Rick Dindinger ran for a second term unopposed.
District 2
Incumbent Sue Bosier easily won a second term representing neighboring District 2, defeating first-time challenger Scott Watters by almost 30 percentage points.
Bosier credits her volunteers staff — not the benefits of incumbency — for her landslide victory.
“I was very fortunate to have a really good team out there helping me and it paid off,” she said. “One of my volunteers walked 68 miles.”
During her first term, Bosier was not shy about defying her colleagues. She was one of only two councilmembers to publicly oppose the city’s home-rule charter passed by voters last year.
Although serving on the nonpartisan city council has been Bosier’s first foray into elected office, she has been no stranger to politics in Arapahoe County. The ex-wife of a Centennial “founder,” former County Assessor Ed Bosier, is a longtime Republican activist.
District 3
Unlike in District 1, a partisan approach was not successful in central Centennial’s District 3, where incumbent Rebecca McClellan won re-election by 18 percentage points.
McClellan, who was a delegate for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention last year, had been challenged by Republican activist Cindy Combs who had largely centered her candidacy on her party affiliation in the GOP-heavy district.
“It’s substance over partisanship,” McClellan said of her victory. “People are reading the Citizen, paying attention, going to council meetings. I think they’re looking past partisanship and looking at the decisions we’re really making.”
The councilmember, who served as mayor pro tem last year, is known for her passionate representation of district residents, though she has recently raised the ire of some colleagues over her protests of an underpass idea.
McClellan, Centennial’s representative on the Arapahoe Road/Interstate 25 Interchange Coalition, has vigorously protested an initiative to build an I-25 underpass at Alton Way to help ease congestion on Arapahoe. McClellan’s critics have accused her of grandstanding, saying the city is not taking the idea seriously anyway.
McClellan’s other council-related activities have included serving on the legislative policy committee of the Colorado Municipal League and representing Centennial at the National League of Cities in Washington, D.C.
Incumbent Ron Weidmann ran for re-election unopposed in Centennial’s far eastern District 4.
By the numbers
MAYOR
Cathy Noon 9,561 48.4%
Todd Miller 8,158 41.3%
Mike Weber 1,149 5.8%
Greg Schoenfeld 886 4.5%
DISTRICT 1
Ron Phelps 1,504 30.3%
Vorry Moon 1,462 29.5%
Sonni Marbury 916 18%
Sharon West 550 12%
Pete Cooney 296 6%
Michael Hall 158 3.2%
Gary Furnee 77 1.5%
DISTRICT 2
Sue Bosier 3,084 65%
Scott Watters 1,671 35%
DISTRICT 3
Rebecca McClellan 3,227 59%
Cindy Combs 2,228 41%
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Reader Comments
KarenPhelps wrote on Nov 11, 2009 8:42 AM:
" (Centennial, COLO) District 1 Council Member-Elect Ron Phelps will be sworn into office at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, November 16, 2009, in City Council Chambers. Arapahoe County Clerk Nancy Doty has advised the Canvass of Votes will be conducted that afternoon. If the Canvass of Votes is not complete by 6:00 p.m., the swearing-in will take place on December 7, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. Council Member-Elect Phelps will complete the remainder of the term vacated by Betty Ann Hamilton. "
KarenPhelps wrote on Nov 11, 2009 8:31 AM: