Denver May 2005 Election
John Salzman laments the lack of coverage of opponents to the new Denver Justice Center from the Denver dailies, in his column in today's Rocky Mountain News [February 5, 2005, "Salzman: Dailies take little note of jail foes"]. From the opinion piece, "That's why it's surprising that the opinions of opponents of the proposed $380 million justice center, which would include a jail and criminal courtrooms, were largely absent from the news pages of the News and Post most of the past year - despite copious coverage of the issue. I discovered this by reading all news articles about the proposed justice center in both Denver dailies from April - when city contractors recommended building a new justice center where the News building currently stands - through Wednesday. A total of 36 stories were written. I divided the people named in these 36 articles, called "sources" by journalists, into three categories: jail supporters, opponents, or neutral. I counted each source only once per article. It turns out that a whopping 72 percent (62 sources) were supporters, 19 percent (16 sources) were neutral, and a paltry 9 percent (eight sources) were jail opponents. The pattern in both papers was almost identical. The most popular pro-jail source was Hickenlooper, who was named in 15 articles. The most frequently cited opponent was Christie Donner of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, who was included in two stories."
It looks like the May election will not be a mail only affair according to the Denver Post [February 5, 2005, "Panel changes mind, nixes May all-mail ballot"]. From the article, {The commissioners, who first voted two weeks ago, said the combined approach would give them a chance to try out new vote centers that are expected to be all over the city for the November election. Projected costs for the combined election are roughly $1 million, according to the election commission, based on 422 polling precincts and 11 early- vote centers...The mayor has proposed a new justice center, the main issue currently on the May ballot, along with charter changes to add Glendale firefighters to the city force."
9:04:59 AM 
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