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Archive for the 'Keith King' Tag

Councilwoman suffering Notyetupdatedherwebsiteitis

January 17th, 2013, 10:31 am by

Dear City Councilwoman Brandy Williams: Time to update your campaign website.

Williams, who is running for re-election against former state Sen. Keith King and former county Commissioner Jim Bensberg in the race for District 3, lists the Housing and Building Association of Colorado Springs among her endorsers.

But Williams failed to secure the HBA’s endorsement this year.

Granted, Williams includes the HBA among the organizations supporting her on her old campaign website.

But one of her competitors — King — landed in hot water this week when he listed county Commissioner Sallie Clark as a member of his advisory council.

It’s true that Clark served on King’s advisory council. But she did so when he was in the Legislature.

“Sorry for the confusion, Sallie Clark,” King’s campaign manager, Daniel Cole, said on Facebook.

“Keith’s page is currently undergoing a transition from a Legislative website to a new Council website, which has been built for a couple days, but which has lain dormant as we worked out networking issues.”

Clark, who is friends with all the candidates, asked that her name be removed.

 

Posted in: City Council • Elections • Politics • • • • • • | 8 Comments »

HBA endorses only two incumbents in council races

January 15th, 2013, 6:00 pm by

The deadline for filing papers to run for City Council is still three weeks away.

But the political action committee of the Housing and Building Association of Colorado Springs has already finalized its endorsements.

“By this time, with the amount of time candidates have had to consider running, we figure that people that have that kind of passion for office already have been out there long enough to have a good sense of the field. So to us, it’s not too early,” said William Mutch, the HBA’s director of government affairs and public policy.

The endorsements were made before all the candidates are known because it’s a “longstanding tradition” of the HBA to get “involved effectively,” Mutch said.

The HBA endorsed only two incumbents — Angela Dougan and Tim Leigh.

The HBA endorsed Keith King over incumbent Brandy Williams in District 3 and Al Loma over Bernie Herpin in District 5.

The fifth incumbent — Lisa Czelatdko — is apparently not seeking re-election.

Ed Bircham, who is running for council District 6 and wasn’t endorsed by the HBA, said he didn’t receive a questionnaire or an invitation to interview with the organization.

“I don’t know why they made up their minds so fast without giving me the opportunity,” Bircham said.

Still, Bircham said he didn’t want to be “indebted” to any group. In fact, he said he’s going to fund his own campaign.

“I’m going to fund it myself so I’m not indebted to special interest groups,” he said.

The HBA PAC is headed by Ralph Braden, vice president at Nor’wood Development Group, one of Colorado Springs’ biggest real estate companies.

Braden, who is on the HBA’s executive committee, declined to comment.

Here are the HBA’s endorsements:

District 1: Incumbent Tim Leigh

District 2: Incumbent Angela Dougan

District 3: Keith King

District 4: Deborah Hendrix

District 5: Al Loma

District 6: David Moore

 

Posted in: City Council • Elections • Politics • • • • • • • • • • | 7 Comments »

Candidate says Czelatdko won’t seek re-election

January 15th, 2013, 2:01 pm by

City Councilwoman Lisa Czelatdko, an outspoken council member who has butted heads with Mayor Steve Bach, won’t seek another term in the April municipal election.

That’s according to Keith King, a former state senator and state representative who is running for council District 3.

On his website, King said the District 3 seat is open because Czelatdko is “not running.”

“Lisa told Keith that she wasn’t running,” said Daniel Cole, who is King’s campaign manager.

Czelatdko was coy last week when asked whether she would seek re-election.

“I’m going to have an announcement out by Feb. 6,” she said, referring to the last day to turn in nominating petitions.

When told that the word on the street was that she wasn’t going to run again, Czelatdko said: “Yeah, I’ve heard that.”

Here’s what observers believed was another sign that Czelatdko won’t run again: County Commissioner Sallie Clark, a Czelatdko ally, is on King’s advisory council, according to his website.

However, Clark clarified Tuesday night that she had served on King’s advisory council when he was in the Legislature and that she was unlikely to endorse any of the candidates. Clark asked the King campaign to immediately remove her name from King’s website.

“While I served as a small-business owner on Keith’s sounding board when he was in the Legislature, I am not currently serving on his advisory council for the District 3 city race,” she said on Facebook.

“I’ve appreciated the opportunity to meet with each of the District 3 candidates to talk about Westside issues and informed each of them that I do not expect to endorse any specific candidate,” Clark added.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: City Council • Elections • Politics • • • • | 25 Comments »

Former state Sen. Keith King mulls City Council run

January 4th, 2013, 2:06 pm 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 Council • Elections • • • • • | 7 Comments »