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Aurora Democrats announce slate of candidates for 2023 city council, mayor positions [1]
['The Sentinel', 'Arnie Schultz', 'Hapi Farmer', 'Bart Emanuel', 'Factory Working Orphan', 'Kate Mason', 'Don Black', 'J Walter', 'Jeff Brown']
Date: 2023-01-16 21:54:42+00:00
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EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that two years ago, Democrats held a thin majority on the city council. Previously, the city council was held by five Democrats and five Republicans and one unaffiliated representative.
AURORA | A slate of Democrats announced Sunday at a joint press conference that they will be running for Aurora City Council in this fall’s elections.
That includes current city Councilmember Juan Marcano, who will be running for mayor.
“I’m running for Mayor to create an Aurora that puts our working families first — to create a city that is safe, clean, and thriving,” Marcano said on social media following an announcement at the Aurora Municipal Center Sunday afternoon.
Marcano is joined by fellow city Councilmember Alison Coombs, Pastor Thomas Mayes, anti-gang activist Jason McBride, attorney Brian Matise and community organizer Chris Rhodes, who all announced their intention to run as a slate of Democrats for city council seats.
It’s unclear so far whether other Democrats will also run for city council or the mayor’s seat this year. Not other such formal announcements, nor pacts, have been announced.
The city council currently has a 6-4 Republican majority. Mayor Mike Coffman, who can cast votes in the event of a tie, is also a Republican. City council seats are technically nonpartisan, but critical city council decisions have become hyper-partisan and polarizing, particularly in recent years.
As much of the Aurora region has swung politically left in the past several years, the Aurora City Council is one of few institutions still controlled by Republicans. Just two years ago, Democrats nearly controlled the city council. At the time, the dais was split among five Democrats, five Republicans and swing-voted unaffiiated member. That swung toward a narrow GOP domination with elections in 2021.
This fall’s election offers Democrats a shot at changing that, as five of the city council’s seats and the mayorship are up for reelection.
The terms of at-large representatives Angela Lawson and Curtis Gardner, Ward VI representative Francoise Bergan, Ward V representative Coombs and Ward IV representative Marcano all expire in November. Gardner and Bergan are Republicans. Lawson is unaffiliated and frequently votes with Republicans; Coombs and Marcano are Democrats.
After losing his Congressional seat to Jason Crow in 2018, Coffman was narrowly elected as Aurora’s mayor in 2019, beating Aurora NAACP president Omar Montgomery by just hundreds of votes. Coffman has not officially announced whether he intends to run for a second term but in a December interview with FOX31 Denver said he does plan to run for reelection.
“I am going to run again, you heard it first,” he said in response to a question about his plans from anchor Matt Mauro.
Marcano was elected to the city council in 2019. An outspoken progressive, he is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and has clashed with Coffman and the council’s conservative members on the dais and on social media. He has advocated for increasing affordable housing in the region and raising the minimum wage, along with other policies intended to benefit low-income Aurorans. Before taking office he worked as a manager and designer at several architecture firms.
The Democratic city council candidates are:
Ward IV – Jason McBride: longtime anti-gang activist Jason McBride has worked in a number of roles to serve at-risk youth in the Denver and Aurora communities, and is currently a violence prevention specialist at the Denver-based nonprofit Struggle of Love Foundation and the executive director of McBride Impact. A native of Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood, he now lives in Aurora.
Ward V – Chris Rhodes: Rhodes works as a community organizer focused on economic justice issues at the Colorado People’s Alliance, a progressive organization that current city council member Crystal Murillo is also involved with. He previously worked with at-risk youth and people in residential facilities in California, Indiana and Maryland, according to his biography on the Alliance’s website.
Ward VI – Brian Matise: Matise is a shareholder-level attorney at the Englewood-based law firm Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine, where he specializes in commercial litigation, product liability mass tort litigation and class actions. Matise is an expert in special districts and has sued several metropolitan districts on behalf of homeowners. He received his law degree from the University of New Mexico in 1998.
At-large – Alison Coombs: Coombs is currently the city council’s Ward V representative. She was first elected in 2019, beating Republican incumbent Bob Roth. She works as a program manager at a residence for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and is the first openly LGBTQ person on Aurora’s city council.
At-large – Thomas Mayes: Mayes is the reverend at Living Waters Christian Center Church and has been active in the Aurora community for many years, including serving as a community liaison for the Aurora Police Department following the 2012 theater shooting and as a member of the now-disbanded community police task force. He ran unsuccessfully for an at-large city council seat in 2019.
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[1] Url:
https://sentinelcolorado.com/news/metro/aurora-democrats-announce-slate-of-candidates-for-2023-city-council-mayor-positions/
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