City of Boulder 2D - Prohibit a Person from Running for Both Council and Mayor

Question 2D changes the swearing-in date for newly elected members of the city council and addresses municipal candidacy issues. The biggest change is that 2D prohibits someone from running for both a council seat and mayor.

Traditionally, any council member – newly elected or continuing – could run for mayor and be elected by the 9 city council members. Question 2D would forbid council candidates from also running for mayor. However, continuing council members with two years left on their term could run for mayor without giving up their seat – as council members can currently do. If a continuing council member is elected mayor, then the 5th-highest vote-getter in the council race would fill the two years left on the vacated council seat.

The Boulder mayor serves a 2-year term as a “weak” mayor with no more power than other council members. Council members would all be elected to 4-year terms unless they are filling a vacancy created by a continuing council member being elected mayor.

Recommendation: Against the Measure

In 2020 Boulder voters approved RCV or “ranked choice (instant runoff) voting” beginning in 2023 to directly elect our mayor whenever we have 3 or more mayoral candidates. RCV is much better at handling vote splitting than our current “choose-one” plurality voting. In contrast, plurality voting discourages serious candidates from running because of the fear they might be a spoiler.

RCV is a great opportunity to open up the field to lots of candidates, but this measure would probably close off the field to most serious candidates, leaving only those who can’t run for a council seat, either because they are already on council or because they are term limited. With short mayoral terms and a “weak” mayor, there is not much incentive to run for mayor. The city should be encouraging more people to run for mayor in the RCV election, not fewer.

The city argues that the campaign finance rules cannot handle someone running for two seats. The campaign finance rules are in the Boulder Revised Code and can be amended by city council without getting approval of the electorate.

Another problem with 2D is that voters will only get to vote for 4 council candidates, but 5 candidates could get elected. This measure should be defeated.

Website for the Yes side
No known website – Info on a proponents’ website appreciated.

Website for the No side
No known website – Info on an opponents’ website appreciated.


Approved Ballot Language
City of Boulder Ballot Question 2D
Charter Clarification of Candidate Issues

Shall Sections 5 and 9 of the Boulder Home Rule Charter be amended to allow candidates to run for only one office at an election, allow a council member whose term does not end at the election to run for mayor without resigning their seat unless they win the office of mayor, fill vacancies for the remainder of the vacated term, and change the swearing-in date of newly elected officials as provided in Ordinance 8540?

For the Measure ____
Against the Measure ____

Ordinance 8540 to refer Question 2D to the voters
https://documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=179899&dbid=0&_ga=2.74350615.404892481.1665453032-181246305.1661276300&cr=1