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**Big Business and Progressives Spar in Denver Mayor's Race**

**The CEO of the city Chamber of Commerce, a venture capitalist-backed
former Democratic state senator, and a left-wing former mayoral
candidate are the leading hopefuls.**

My colleague Luke Goldstein has written
<[link removed]>
about the warring interests shaping the closely watched mayor's race
in Chicago, where there's a general election on Tuesday. While this
battle has the distinct odor of mid-century Democratic machine politics,
the core question of whether grassroots social progressivism can prevail
over corporate conservatism is playing out in other major cities as
well.

For example, look at Denver's mayoral race, which is also set for
April 4th; if no candidate earns a majority of the vote, there will be a
runoff on June 6. Because of the enormous field of 17 candidates, a
runoff is highly likely.

The race comes after a decade's worth of change and social struggle.
Denver has not had an open mayoral seat since 2011-before the COVID-19
pandemic, before the Trump administration, before a racial and economic
reckoning that continues across cities in education, housing, and police
reform. Many recent mayoral races have demonstrated the public's newly
developed resistance to being sold a whitewashed version of history that
puts business first and communities last in city management. In other
cases like New York City, a heightened state of anxiety over crime and
homelessness has predominated. But Denver's story has yet to be
written.

A large candidate field has emerged, each with promises and perspectives
on how to better Denver. The city is dealing with a homelessness crisis,
and a land development struggle
<[link removed]>,
amidst an overall uncertain
<[link removed]>
economic future for the larger metropolitan area.

Notable amounts of money have been spent on the race. As local outlets
<[link removed]>
have reported, the money is coming from both known and unknown sources.
The leading contenders for the race, Kelly Brough and Mike Johnston,
have been the main beneficiaries. Brough is the CEO of the Denver Metro
Chamber of Commerce, and she is running a business-oriented campaign; as
Colorado Newsline reported
<[link removed]>,
Brough has drawn in almost a million dollars from a fund backed by real
estate investors and apartment developers. Johnston, a Democrat and
former state senator, has been supported by a super PAC mainly funded by
venture capitalist and co-founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman, which helped
raise $1.3 million for the campaign.

It's easy to argue that Lisa Calderon has been running the truly
progressive
<[link removed]>
campaign, even while bringing in significantly less money. Calderon has
mostly been backed by the Working Families Party (WFP), which has
donated almost $20,000 to the Calderon campaign. That is dwarfed by the
prodigious spending of Brough and Johnston. Still, Calderon has held
steady. All three of these candidates are at the top of the polls, with
each getting 5 percent, according to a public SurveyUSA
<[link removed]>
from late February. A whopping 58 percent of voters were undecided in
that survey. That is the most recent poll in the under-the-radar race.

[link removed]

**** Brough stands out for a conservative campaign in a progressive
city, running on ideas that sound compelling at a surface level, such as
unilaterally ending homeless encampments (which avoids addressing the
underlying issues) and focusing on building, according to a survey
Brough filled out for Denverite
<[link removed]>,
"for-sale housing on city-owned property." But in a particularly tense
social climate that has been increasingly experimenting with
alternatives to homelessness, crime, and business, these ideas may not
fly with the Denver populace.

While Brough was at the Chamber of Commerce in 2020, it came out against
Proposition 118, a paid family leave proposal that the Chamber called
<[link removed]>
a "legislative overreach on workplace standards." Brough herself called
<[link removed]>
the proposal a "$2 billion tax increase to fund a state startup,"
presumably referring to the bill's attempt to create a state family
leave fund that employers and employees would have paid into equally.
WFP, among other progressive outfits like the Colorado Immigrant Rights
Coalition and NARAL Pro-Choice America, endorsed the proposition. It was
loudly protested
<[link removed]>
by business groups, and eventually abandoned
<[link removed]>.

Brough attempted to walk back her position on paid leave in a mid-March
debate, stating that the opposition came from the bill not going far
enough to compensate employees for time off. Calderon quickly-and
accurately-labeled that as "revisionist history," The Denver Post
<[link removed]>
reported.

Calderon has been pushing the boundaries in the race, running on issues
<[link removed]>
such as "decentralizing" the mayor's office, focusing on small
business, and constructing affordable public housing. The race will
ultimately come down to how Denver as a city prioritizes pushing
progressive issues.

Historically, Johnston has been a reliable Democrat, and there may be
something comforting about the former state senator to Denver voters.
But Calderon is familiar as well-she finished in third place in the
2019 mayoral race.

Whatever the outcome, the race has pitted commercial interests against
social interests. And if nothing else, progressives are not going to let
Brough, or anyone, rewrite history.

"She's trying to sanitize the fact that she is the face of the
business community and that is what her candidacy is," said Wendy
Howell, state director of the Colorado Working Families Party. "And we
don't think Denver voters should be confused about that: What she
represents [are] the biggest corporations in Colorado."

~ RAMENDA CYRUS, JOHN LEWIS WRITING FELLOW

Follow Ramenda Cyrus on Twitter <[link removed]>

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