We're now going to get started
with one minute opening
statements in a randomly generated
order. Leslie hard,
you'll go first. Thank you.
Everyone deserves to be treated
with dignity and respect.
It doesn't matter who you love, your income,
your race, your age, your national origin.
We all belong in this city.
Denver is better because of our differences.
That's who I am.
That's what I've fought for.
I was raised by a single mom in the
armed forces, and when things got tough,
two other people stepped in to help raise me.
A law enforcement officer and a woman
who was a boss in her own right.
These are my parents.
This is my family.
It sounds complicated, but really it's not.
Just like some of the issues facing us today,
I know that together we can tackle
some of Denver's toughest issues.
Denver is family.
We all are family.
And though we have our differences,
we come together in tough times.
But for far too long,
the city has been run by special
interests that don't put people first.
As your next mayor,
I will put people over politics and
deliver real results for this city.
I'm Leslie Herrod,
and together we can change
Denver for the better.
Thank you. Aurelio Martinez.
Hola Yamaimo, Aurelio
Martinez. Hello, everyone.
I'm Aurelio Martinez.
And I'm telling you, I want to explain
to everyone why I'm running for Denver.
The main reason I'm running for Denver is
everyone out there knows Denver is broken.
Denver is broken and needs a mayor that's
going to be able to go into the office
and correct a lot of insufficiencies,
correct the administration,
correct everything so that Denver could
become a town that it used to be.
Beautiful, beautiful town.
I just, I just want everyone to know that.
We need to.
I'm sorry I lost my train of thought.
We need to, we need to go ahead and
and put this city back on track.
We need, we need to tackle issues
like homelessness we're getting.
We need to tackle issues like
housing and how we're going to
keep people in Denver from leaving
and bring people back into Denver.
These are these are issues
that we will take care of.
And me as Mayor,
I'm not part of the status
quo and we can make change.
Thank
you. Our third opening
statement is Thomas Wolfe.
Thank you Metro State for hosting us tonight.
Go roadrunners, thankfully,
I apologize, but thankfully for me,
60 seconds kind of conforms to bullet points.
So I would start off with as your next mayor,
I will end encampments.
We need to understand that encampments
are destroying our commercial property
values kind of just right over here
in our central business district.
They fund those those property,
the property taxes from that fund 50%
of DPS's budget as well as a little
bit over 10% of my city budget.
Encampments are illegal.
Encampments make our city unsafe
and filthy and that has to change.
That's the business side of it.
The human side is we have to
acknowledge that this is a
full blown humanitarian crisis.
These are Denver's neediest.
The answer is to get them sheltered.
I came over here tonight and
passed Meow Wolf.
That has been the current response.
That's an odd name,
but that's been the response to from
our administration to this crisis.
Meow.
If you want an authentic wolf
to confront this, that's me.
Thank you.
We now go to
Kelly Bruff. Thank you. Hi, my name
is Kelly Bruff, and I'm running
to be the next mayor of Denver.
And like so many families in Denver,
mine has struggled, too.
I lost my father to violent crime.
My family received government assistance
when I was a kid to put food on our
table and keep a roof over our heads.
And my husband struggled with
addiction our entire life together.
And my girls and I lost him to suicide.
These are the issues the next Mayor of
Denver must be prepared to address.
But today's Denver also requires
a mayor who has executive and
relevant experience to run the city.
And I do.
I've been the CEO of the Denver Metro
Chamber of Commerce with over 3000 members.
I was John Hickenlooper's chief of
staff when he was mayor of Denver.
I've run the HR department for the city.
I know the City team and I love them.
I've even served as a legislative analyst for
all 13 members of the Denver City Council.
I know this city inside and out,
and I understand the issues,
and I know on day one I can hit
the ground running.
I'd love to have your support.
Thank
you Karen Roberts.
My name is Terrence Roberts.
I'm 46 years old.
I am running to be the 46th Mayor of Denver.
I also agreed that housing should
be declared a crisis in this city.
What I don't agree with is just
destroying encampments without
having somewhere for people to go
because where they're going to go.
I am the only candidate that is
saying we do need to shift our
conversation from just affordable
housing to more public social housing.
Poverty is the precursor for our second
biggest issue in this city, which is.
Do you think gang violence?
We just had a youth shot in
his head at East High School.
We had another shooting at Emily
Griffith Griffith right before that.
The biggest precursor to the gang
violence is domestic violence.
The biggest precursor to
domestic violence is poverty.
We need a mayor who was going to present a
proper budget to City Council every year.
That includes ending the cycle
of poverty in our city with
our public safety portion.
We need a housing budget more
than 2% of our public safety.
Which is what we've been getting
for the last decade.
Vote for Terrence Roberts for Denver
marriage to see tangible change.
Thank
you, Kwame Spearman.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Kwame Spearman.
I'm the CEO, co-owner of Tattered
Cover Denver's neighborhood bookstore.
I'm so excited to be here tonight
to talk about my vision and how I
can become your neighborhood mayor.
But before I get started,
I want you to take a few seconds and
just think about two or three things
that you love about your neighborhood
from my parents who live in Montclair.
I think my dad would say that it
was the ability to buy a home in
Montclair after he left the segregated.
SI think my mom would say it was
our neighborhoods affordability
that allowed us to live there
for the 37 years that she worked
for Denver Public Schools.
But I also want you to think
about your neighborhood.
Is it headed in the right
direction or the wrong direction?
Quite frankly,
I'm in this race right now because I'm
not convinced that our neighborhoods
are living up to their full potential.
And as your neighborhood mayor,
I plan to make the tough.
Choices on the issues that are
affecting our neighborhoods the most,
homelessness, safety and affordability.
Because I fundamentally believe that
your neighborhood makes our city.
Thank you. Mike Johnston.
Thank you. How many
of us have had that experience when
you're walking through downtown Denver
and you're holding your kid's hand
and you round the corner and suddenly
you happen upon a group of three or
four people who are huddled around an
encampment trying to keep themselves warm.
And you feel your kid hold your hand a
little tighter and look up to you with
that combination of fear and heartbreak,
as if to say to you like.
Dad, why are you letting this happen?
We don't have to let this happen.
No one should be homeless in Denver.
We have a moral obligation to make
sure we can get people off the
streets and into housing.
And we know that we can end the
practice of people having to sleep
in public places and yards and
parks and on your front doorsteps.
And when we do that,
when we put people into housing,
you get back a city where your
kids can walk around with joy
again and hold your hand,
and you can be proud of the city they built.
And most of all,
you know,
they'll be proud of the city we built.
We can do that as the city and that's
why I'm running to be the next mayor.
Thank you, Chris Hansen. Good evening.
I'm state Senator Chris Hansen,
and I'm running to be Denver's
next mayor because I believe we
need to build a city that works.
And right now I'm feeling frustrated.
Like many of you at home,
I'm frustrated because it doesn't feel like
Denver's living up to its full potential.
We need to build a safer,
more affordable and greener Denver,
and we're just not getting
the job done as an engineer,
as a private sector,
as a public sector leader,
I have delivered for Denver time and
time again, and that's exactly what
I want to do as your next mayor.
In fact, in this last state budget,
as a leader on the Joint Budget
Committee at the Capitol,
I brought billions of dollars to the
aid that Denver needs to succeed.
And now we have a once in a
lifetime opportunity,
along with federal dollars from
recent federal legislation,
to make generational change in Denver.
But the city has to do its part
if this city is going to work.
We can't waste this once in a lifetime
opportunity to address housing,
to address transit,
to address the homelessness crisis.
This is our moment to succeed.
This is the moment we invest in our.
Kids and our future.
That's why I'm running to be
Denver's next mayor.
Thank you.
Ian Tafoya.
Hi, my name is Ian Thomas Tafoya and
I'm excited to be here at Metro State.
I'm a graduate from Metro State.
Shout out to the political science
students who put this on today.
I was once a political science
student here at Metro State.
You could run for mayor one day.
It's definitely available to everybody
from this Hispanic serving institution.
I'm grateful for Colorado who
has been a great partner of mine.
I am the Colorado State director
for Green Latinos and Environmental
Justice Organization that has
taken on the biggest polluters
and work to lower their bills at
home while cleaning up the air.
My background.
I started here on campus
organizing for composting,
and this year we passed a law that will
impact 31 million people by bringing
recycling and composting to everyone.
I'm the kind of candidate who sees a problem
and immediately starts to take action,
but we don't do it alone.
I also studied Native American studies here,
and as a Native American,
I believe in calling in all
four directions white, black,
yellow, red, elders, youth.
Together we come to the solutions,
and I also have the experience in
working in three branches of local
government and every level of government.
I'm here for you.
Thank you. Trinidad Rodriguez.
I'm Trinidad Rodriguez.
I was born and raised in West Denver
by a hard working single mom.
We had speed bumps along the way.
But like many denverites,
the city helped us through the tough times.
And I wanted to pay it forward.
So I when I started my career and
working in finance 25 years ago,
I volunteered the entire time.
For all of those 25 years serving the
city's most efficient and important
civic and nonprofit organizations.
Funding and and financing I helped
secure built affordable housing,
communities and schools,
clinics and hospitals that went on to
serve 10s of thousands of denverites.
And that really sets me apart from
the rest of the candidates here.
Denver is in tough time,
and I'm ready to keep fighting,
just like I've been fighting for the
last 25 years to build my vision,
which is a city where every denverite,
regardless of the neighborhood they're in,
whether it's a single West side like
me or a place with more advantage
to achieve their version of success.
Thank you. Jim Walsh.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Jim Walsh.
I'm so happy to be here,
very excited to be here.
I want to welcome all of my
colleagues to my campus.
I've been a part of this campus since
1993 when I was a graduate student,
and I've taught here at
CU Denver for 25 years.
I'm in the political science department.
A little bit about myself.
I'm from western Pennsylvania.
I'm from a very large Irish Catholic family
of nine and steeltown blue collar family.
Made my way to Duke University
on a wrestling scholarship.
And landed in a place of great
wealth and privilege and that
that sort of gave me a class
consciousness that has never left me.
I moved to Boulder in 1990
to study poetry and Naropa,
so I became the world's first wrestler poet.
And some of my students are here tonight.
I'm so excited to see them here.
This campaign is truly grassroots.
All student LED,
student driven, student build,
if you're interested in that.
Look,
look at my web page.
Thank you. Debbie Ortega.
Good evening, Denver.
I'm here to ask for your support.
I have worked in this city for many years.
I ended up here in Denver,
Co when I was 13 years old after my
dad was killed in a mine cave in and my
mom remarried and we moved to Denver.
And the commitment that I saw that my
dad did in giving service back to other
coal miners when they were injured and
my mother who worked in a food bank,
that oftentimes that food ended
up on our our table.
That commitment to service is
what I've given to this city,
and I've worked on large and small
projects from housing affordability
to addressing the needs of our
unhoused population as the Executive
director of our Homeless Commission,
and I'm committed to addressing these issues.
I have the experience in having
served the city for many years.
I am ready to hit the ground running
because I know how our city works and
I'm prepared to step in and work with.
Our business community,
our residential neighbors and City
Council to get this work done.
Thank you. Final opening
statement. Lisa Calderon.
Good evening, I'm Lisa called it on and
I would like to thank the organizers
and also the people of the Arapahoe
Shine and you tribes who stolen land.
We reside on my daughter Savannah
who's a member of the Navajo Nation.
It's good to be home.
This is where I started my career
and my activism as a single parent,
Black Student Alliance President
who organized with Umus and Mecha.
You know even back in the day I was able
to afford A2 bedroom apartment on a.
Food stamps and public support.
I would like students today,
educators and our critical workers
to have that same opportunity.
I am running because I have been a
nonprofit executive for 20 years,
including running,
running the city's reentry program,
running domestic violence programs,
and running a merge Colorado for
Democratic women to run for office.
I am running for a new Denver.
Not the same power holders,
not the same false choices.
Vote for me. Lisa called it on.
Thank you so much. All right.
That's all the time we have tonight.