Thursday, May 1, 2003

2003 Denver Election for Auditor Below is e-mail from Dennis Gallagher's campaign: Here is the text of a letter from Dennis Gallagher to Landri Taylor related to inferences in campaign literature and television commercials done on behalf of Taylor's campaign, regarding Dennis Gallagher's position on the pay raise for elected officials in Denver.  Gallagher delivered the letter during an Auditor's forum sponsored by the Denver Rotary Club at noon today at the Denver Atheletic Club. May 1, 2003 Dear Landri: It has come to my attention that your television commercial and some campaign literature may be suggesting that I supported the extravagant pay raises for incoming elected officials.  I was quite surprised at this, and am certain that it was not your intention because as I am sure you know, nothing could be further from the truth.  I have been very vocal in my steadfast opposition to those outrageous raises. Not only did I vote against the pay raise, I introduced a council bill to rescind the pay raise and send the question to a vote of the people on the May ballot.  Unfortunately, a majority of my council colleagues refused to support this prudent action - even when I sought to bypass significant opposition in committee and go directly to the whole council for a vote.  I am sorry that you were not there to support my efforts.  I am sure that with your help to lobby the other council members we could have persuaded them to indeed let the people speak on this matter. As you know, my proposal would have rescinded the raise and replaced the current, mandated - and flawed - mechanism with something infinitely more fair and in the best interests of Denver taxpayers.  Unfortunately because enough pressure was not brought to bear on my council colleagues from the outside - by people like yourself and others opposed to these gargantuan raises - we are stuck with them for the next four years. As I say, I am certain that it was not your intention to leave the voters of Denver with the impression that I supported those raises and so in the interest of truth and to set the record straight; in the interest of fair and honest elections it would be great if you would issue a clear public statement indicating that I indeed opposed the pay raises and you did not mean to imply that I did (ed. did not).  Also, that you re-cut your television commercial and change any campaign literature to reflect the truth of this matter - with no inference or ambiguity to the contrary. Thanks, Landri.  See you on the campaign trail. Sincerely, Dennis Gallagher 8:43:13 PM

Operamail Outage I haven't been able to get to my Operamail e-mail since early yesterday. I hope there's nothing in there from any of the campaigns that should have been posted. I'd suggest going to the candidate websites for information regarding forums, meet and greets, etc. DenveGov has links to each candidate website. 6:05:25 PM

2003 Denver Municpal Election Here's the link to today's The Stump from the Rocky Mountain News. Here's the link to today's Election Watch from the Denver Post. 5:37:12 AM

2003 Denver Mayoral Election Susan Casey stays on message trying to get voters to focus on her budget plan according to the Rocky Mountain News. She released a new plan for the Police department on Wednesday. She is also advocating a cut in the amount that the city contributes to employee benefits. Here's a link to an article written by a Rocky staffer that was with Ms. Casey on the campaign trail. The Denver Post has an article on the mayoral candidate views of Mayor Webb's recent budget cutting proposals. Don Mares thinks that Webb has entered the race after saying he would not until the runoff. The Post quotes him as saying, "I find it unfortunate that the mayor has chosen to get involved in this race, but I have my own campaign and my own race to run." Ari Zavaras' ties to the Department of Safety and their effect on his campaign is the subject of this article from the Denver Post. Penfield Tate says his support is growing for next week's election according to the Rocky Mountain News. The article lists numbers from a Tate campaign poll. From the article, "Tate's poll shows Hickenlooper in the lead with 27 percent of the vote, Mares with 16 percent and Tate and Zavaras each with 12 percent." Here's a link to a Denver Post article about Tate's fundraising in April. Employees of two downtown Denver bars are required to wear pins supporting Ari Zavaras while on duty. From the article, "Coleman said that although employees must wear the pin as part of their uniform, they are free to support any of the seven mayoral candidates. He said most of his staff members are young and not involved in politics." Nice of him The Rocky Mountain News has an article about expenditures in the auditor's office under Don Mares. The article quotes Mares as saying, "When you are spending taxpayer money, you should be ready and able to explain those expenditures any time, any place. And I am always ready to explain my expenditure of taxpayer money." The Rocky has a short list of sample expenditures. The Denver Post also has a story on Mares' office spending. A little campaign hanky panky manifested itself this week with Zavaras' campaign warning a volunteer to stop stealing Penfield Tate yard signs and replacing them with Zavaras signs. According to the Rocky there have been widespread reports of campaign sign vandalism. The yard signs I've displayed had a hell of a time living through the St. Patrick's Day blizzard. Heh. 5:12:16 AM

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