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Former state Sen. Keith King mulls City Council run

January 4th, 2013, 2:06 pm · 7 Comments · posted by

Former state Sen. Keith King is considering running for City Council District 3.

“I picked up the papers, but I haven’t made a final decision,” King, 64, said Friday.

“I’ll be making a decision shortly.”

King is well known in Colorado Springs, especially in political circles.

King, who moved to Colorado Springs in 1977 and started a waterbed furniture store chain with 18 stores in six states, served on the Cheyenne Mountain School District Board. He served as a state representative for eight years and as a state senator for four.

“I would have run one more time, but the district got gerrymandered, and I didn’t want to run against Bill Cadman so I walked away,” he said.

King has started four charter schools and is currently the administrator of Colorado Springs Early Colleges.

King said he’s interested in running for council primarily to help the council transition to the strong-mayor form of government.

King said the council should focus more on things like developing policy and strategic planning and less on the operations of the city.

“I think the citizens of the city spoke and said they want a strong mayor to run the city much like a CEO or much like the governor of the state of Colorado,” he said.

“I bring a unique opportunity, I think, for Colorado Springs to step forward and really embrace the strong mayor form of government and have a way for council to collaborate and cooperate with the mayor and not be so confrontational that we don’t get good things done,” he said.

“I’m just looking to bring my legislative expertise and how the legislature functions and bring that to the operation of City Council to make it something that would be beneficial for good, effective governance of the city along with the strong-mayor concept,” he said.

If King decides to run, he would face at least two other candidates. Former county Commissioner Jim Bensberg announced his candidacy last year, and City Councilwoman Brandy Williams is expected to make a formal announcement next week.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: City CouncilElections
 
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