The celebration was a repeat of 2021, when conservatives took back effective control of the officially nonpartisan City Council from progressives in the left-leaning city — a development Councilman Juan Marcano had called a “gut punch.”

But this time, Marcano was among the progressive losses, defeated in his mayoral challenge of Coffman.

He and other candidates who had hoped to reassert Aurora’s progressive voice were left struggling to account for why conservatives widened their council margin in the Nov. 7 election. The council will have just three Democrats on the 11-member body, outnumbered by eight, including Coffman, who are either Republicans or largely aligned with that group.

Elected officials and political observers have varying theories about what led voters in the state’s third-largest city — also its most ethnically and racially diverse one — city to elect right-leaning candidates to represent them. They range from a pro-Republican skew in outside spending and differences in campaign strategy and messaging to low voter turnout, along with speculation about voters’ lack of awareness of candidates’ party affiliations.

Councilwoman Alison Coombs, a Democrat in a ward-based seat who ran in the at-large race, was the only progressive triumph in the races on the ballot, winning the most votes citywide among the at-large candidates. She was shocked by the rest of the results, she said, including the loss of Marcano, with whom she’d regularly campaigned.

Marcano, who was vying to become the city’s first Latino mayor, lost with 40.6% of the vote to Coffman’s 52.6% in a three-way race.

“It is excellent that people want me there,” Coombs said. “But I fear that (voters) maybe don’t understand that me being there, in an extreme minority, means that many of the things that I have fought for and continued to fight for are going to be extremely difficult — if not impossible — to achieve with the other folks that they chose to elect.”

Overall, one seat changed control across the partisan divide, with Marcano’s council seat won by former Republican state House candidate Stephanie Hancock. Current at-large Councilwoman Angela Lawson won in Coombs’ Ward V, swapping seats with her, while Françoise Bergan won reelection in Ward VI and Curtis Gardner was reelected to the other at-large seat.

Coffman was less puzzled by the results.

He said on election night that his messaging helped him win by speaking directly to voters’ top concerns.

“The first issue was crime, (that) was a top concern,” Coffman said. “Second issue was homelessness. And the third issue is housing affordability. … But when it came to crime, I really think that there was a lot of anxiety out there, a lot of fear.”

And he made that his platform, promising to be tough on crime, reduce unsheltered homelessness and work on housing issues. His campaign shared internal polling from September that showed 58% of voters in the survey identified crime and public safety as a top priority.

While Marcano did talk about addressing crime and public safety, his approach was different — he planned to address the root causes of the issues, rather than focusing on criminal penalties.

Marcano said he was disappointed by turnout among Democratic-leaning voters, arguing a conservative skew in an off-year election makes the results unrepresentative. He’s advocated for making local elections partisan, with candidates’ party affiliations displayed on the ballot, and moving them to even-numbered years, when Democratic voters often turn out in higher numbers.

On his yard signs, Marcano printed “Democrat” below his name, a rare move for a municipal candidate in metro Denver.

“The very, very motivated conservative electorate here shows up, the rest of the city doesn’t — and they’re the ones that get to decide what happens locally for the rest of us,” he said.

He suggested the state’s Proposition HH ballot measure drove more Republican and right-leaning unaffiliated voters to the ballot box, too.

Getting “past the blind tribalism of partisan politics”

But conservative Councilman Dustin Zvonek, who wasn’t up for election this year, disagrees with the idea that local races should be openly partisan.

“I’ve long believed that when it comes to local elections — particularly because we’re nonpartisan — that it gives voters the opportunity to get past the blind tribalism of partisan politics and really dive into what the candidates are running on what their platforms are,” he said.

Zvonek said people who vote in municipal elections likely know more about the candidates and their platforms than in presidential elections, when many strictly vote along party lines. And that’s why he thinks conservative candidates are winning in Aurora — a pushback against what he views as failed Democratic policies.

Coffman also pointed to some of the candidates’ past affiliations with the Democratic Socialists of America as a potential a factor in progressives’ losses. Recent polling conducted by Keating Research for One Main Street Colorado, a political nonprofit that advocates for labor and business interests, found 27% of Aurora respondents had a favorable view of the DSA, compared with 43% who viewed it unfavorably and 30% who were unfamiliar.

Both Coombs and Marcano withdrew from the DSA last month over their disagreement with the content of a Denver DSA statement, titled “Denver DSA Stands with Palestine.” But even if those affiliations affected voters’ views, Coombs, who’s been credited for building a large coalition of supporters, still won her election.

Decisions made on the Aurora council’s dais have become increasingly polarized in recent years, and party leanings have had a significant effect on how its members view Aurora’s problems and, ultimately, vote on them.

Statewide political interests have noticed and gotten involved in Aurora’s races.

“We truly believe the next frontier of Colorado politics is local,” said Shad Murib, chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party.

The party launched a campaign this year to target 100,000 Democratic voters across the state who don’t normally turn out for odd-year elections, hoping to persuade them to vote in nonpartisan races. While there were some successes, Murib said, it was clear the party needed to do more work in cities such as Aurora to “combat the last sort of dying breath of Republican corporate stronghold.”

The Colorado GOP also previously indicated that it would focus on local elections this cycle, but the party chair did not return a request for comment.

Heavy outside spending in races

Outside spending by GOP-aligned groups in Aurora’s elections underlined the fight for control of the council.

Independent expenditure committees — super PACs that can spend unlimited amounts of money — dropped nearly $1.1 million this year, according to the last available campaign finance data, largely fueled by contributions from dark-money groups that don’t disclose their donors. The vast majority of that spending was by groups that back Republicans.

Conservation Colorado, an environmental group that endorsed Democratic candidates in Aurora, including Marcano, said in a post-election statement that it spent more than it ever had before on local races in Colorado. But “progressive groups were outspent by the opposition by an 8:1 ratio,” the group said, “and did not secure a pro-conservation majority on the Aurora City Council.”

Coombs said she worries that many people didn’t really see how the council operated in the past few years, regardless of ideological opinions or personal relationships. In Aurora’s system, the mayor sits on the council and only votes when there is a tie, but the city’s operations are run by a city manager, despite a failed effort backed by Coffman this year to expand the mayor’s power.

“If people had observed Mayor Coffman’s utter failure to lead our council and inability to create coalitions on even the simplest issues, I don’t think they would have put him back in that position,” Coombs said. “And so that’s also concerning and disappointing — that folks perhaps were not aware, or maybe didn’t find it important, that we have a mayor that does not know how to do his job.”

In an October interview, Coffman disputed the notion that he didn’t work well among the council members to build consensus. He said he brings forward issues that he believes are important, regardless of potential disagreement.

But he also said he planned to do a better job when building policy in his second term as he continues the work he started in addressing homelessness and crime.

“The challenges are daunting in the city, but (solutions are) absolutely achievable,” Coffman said. I think this city has so much promise.”

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But ducks got dumped.

By fewer than 100 votes out of more than 10,000 cast, voters in Commerce City decided ducks shouldn’t be part of the city’s backyard animal mix. Each animal got its own question on the ballot for Tuesday’s election.

The unofficial results, as of Friday, show many voters made discerning choices. Don Johnson was among those who singled out ducks for denial.

“Ducks are not like chickens,” said Johnson, a resident of Buffalo Run, as he walked into the Bison Ridge Recreation Center with his wife. “When they go to the bathroom, they leave large piles.”

In Commerce City’s results, bees did the best with a 64% approval rate. Chickens got through with 58% support. The ducks’ result: 49.6% yes, 50.4% no.

The bees’ and chickens’ bases of support are well established.

“Bees have become a hot topic, as their importance to the ecosystem is better understood,” Mayor Benjamin Huseman said. “The push to allow hens in the community came about during the period (last winter) when egg prices saw dramatic increases, and more residents wanted the opportunity to raise chickens and supply their own fresh eggs.”

But the bees and chickens won’t necessarily be allowed in backyards everywhere in the north metro city — many neighborhoods’ homeowner associations have bylaws that ban backyard animals.

Over the last 20 years, numerous communities in Colorado have passed laws allowing residents to keep various animal types on their properties. All three of the state’s largest cities — Denver, Colorado Springs and Aurora — allow backyard chickens, though roosters are typically prohibited.

Nearly a decade ago, Wheat Ridge and Arvada approved backyard dwarf goats. Both Colorado Springs and Lafayette allow pot-bellied pigs in addition to poultry. Aurora last year added ducks to its list of permitted animals.

The backyard animal movement received a boost at the beginning of the pandemic, when people were marooned in their houses under a deluge of government stay-at-home orders.

In Commerce City’s election, where duck doubters edged out enthusiasts by a mere 0.8 percentage points, there’s a feeling that the animals are louder and smellier.

“Ducks are pretty noisy if they’re contained,” said Naomi Mendoza, who lives in the Reunion neighborhood and voted down both chickens and ducks. “And people are not familiar with duck eggs.”

It’s that limited familiarity with the species in general that resulted in ducks getting the big webbed middle finger from voters, speculated Brittany Kammerzell, who owns Duckberry Farm in Berthoud.

“People are more accustomed to a weird neighbor having a few chickens. And bees are in trouble and on the forefront of everybody’s mind,” she said. “I feel like ducks seem more like livestock to people. It’s a little weirder (and) harder for people to accept.”

Kammerzell keeps about 20 ducks, including the popular Muscovy, on her 2-acre farm. They’re joined by 16 chickens and two bee colonies, which, all told, encompass about 100,000 of the treasured pollinators. She sells duck and chicken eggs, along with honey.

Ducks, Kammerzell said, sometimes get a bad rap from people who don’t know enough about them.

“Ducks keep themselves cleaner (than chickens),” she said. “Ducks are healthier and have fewer health concerns.”

That includes fewer instances of mite or lice infestation.

The male ducks — known as drakes — aren’t that loud. The hens are louder, she said, but usually only around feeding time.

“Drakes don’t quack,” she said. “They just make a raspy sound. They’re super-quiet.”

Kammerzell also said ducks don’t tend to “tear up” the landscape, as chickens do. And most domesticated breeds of duck can’t fly, “so you won’t typically have them flying over fences to visit neighbors.”

Dave Williams, a new Commerce City resident who recently moved to the Front Range from Grand Junction, voted for all three animal species on Tuesday’s ballot.

“I like chicken eggs, duck eggs and honey,” he said. “Duck eggs are even better than chicken eggs.”

Back at the Bison Ridge Recreation Center, Roleen Johnson took a different tack with her ballot on Tuesday than her husband did. She said no to backyard bees, but yes to chickens and ducks.

“I just think they’re cute,” she said of the fowl. “I think everyone should be able to have them.”

The Arvada councilwoman’s nearly 400-vote advantage over opponent John Marriott, a fellow council member, by Wednesday morning prompted a concession call from Marriott, Simpson said. Late Tuesday, after she overtook Marriott, she had led at one point by just 20 votes, but the margin continued to grow.

“It was a very stressful evening — a lot of anxiety and stress,” she said of Tuesday night, noting that she went to bed at 1:45 a.m., only to awaken four hours later to check on the election results again.

Simpson held a lead of 50.5% to 49.5% as of late afternoon, with more than 44,000 votes tallied. The Jefferson County elections division said it had processed more than 99% of the votes it received but was still going through around 1,600 ballots. The current margin is well above Colorado’s trigger for an automatic recount.

Of her opponent, Simpson said Marriott is a friend and would have been “a fine mayor” had he won. She will take over a position that has been held since 2011 by Marc Williams, who was term-limited this year. She is set to take the oath of office in Colorado’s seventh-largest city on Monday.

Her campaign focused on housing affordability, among other challenges.

“I’m a big proponent of affordable and attainable housing solutions, particularly as they intersect with the homelessness problem,” Simpson said.

She also ran on a platform of strengthening Arvada’s ability to fortify itself against natural disasters, such as the Marshall fire that burned down more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County nearly two years ago.

“Here in Arvada, we have had quite a few neighborhoods that extend west,” she said. “We are not exempt from this.”

Simpson, 40, has been on Arvada’s City Council for four years. She spent the last eight years as the senior foreign policy and diplomacy officer for the Canadian consulate in Denver. She is married and has a young daughter.

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Councilwoman Wendi Strom defeated challengers Cathy Kentner and Don Burkhart in Lakewood, the state’s fifth-largest city, with about 47% of the vote, according to unofficial results. Burkhart was in second with 28%.

In Arvada, the state’s seventh-largest city, the result was much closer. John Marriott’s slender lead over Lauren Simpson Tuesday evening flipped by morning. As of 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Simpson had pulled ahead by 405 votes, according to results on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website — out of 44,219 ballots tallied.

Simpson declared victory late Wednesday morning. Both Marriott and Simpson serve on the City Council.

Suburban voters had a host of candidates and ballot issues to decide on in this election, including a myriad of local tax measures and three separate ballot questions in Commerce City about whether residents can keep backyard ducks, chickens and bees. In early results, chickens and bees were in the winning column while ducks were not so welcome.

The winner in Lakewood will replace Mayor Adam Paul, who has served 16 years in total on the City Council, while Mayor Marc Williams, who has been on Arvada’s council for nearly 25 years, will make way for Tuesday’s top mayoral vote-getter.

“It’s been good to turn this page and move on,” Paul told The Denver Post last month.

In a mayor’s race in Thornton, which lands between Lakewood and Arvada in size with nearly 145,000 residents, incumbent Jan Kulmann defeated opponent Julia Marvin 54% to 46%.The contest in the north suburb has had its share of drama.

Kulmann, who has been Thornton’s mayor since 2019 and has sat on the council for a decade, spurred a resident lawsuit two years ago that accused her of violating the city’s term-limits statutes by trying to get re-elected mayor. But the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Kulmann was OK to seek her seat again this year.

Meanwhile, in Boulder, voters used a new method — known as ranked-choice voting — to choose its next mayor. In a five-way tussle for Golden mayor, incumbent Laura Weinberg was leading the crowded field with nearly 48% of the vote.

Tax measures on the ballot in metro Denver included funding requests for police and fire services, sidewalks, open space acquisition and affordable housing. In Brighton, a measure seeking $2 million annually to buttress the city’s police department operations through an increase in the sales tax was trailing badly in results posted Wednesday morning, by a margin of 63.6% against and 36.4% for.

“This is the first ask ever for dedicated law enforcement funding,” Brighton Police Chief Matt Domenico told The Post last month. “The reason for this ask to voters is the fast pace of growth in the community. The police department has not been able to keep pace with that growth.”

Brighton’s measure asked voters to add 0.15 percentage points to the city’s sales tax, which would amount to 15 cents on a $100 purchase.

The city has grown from about 33,000 residents to nearly 43,000 today over the past decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. With that population spike has come an increase in crime, Domenico said. Calls for service have jumped from about 40,000 in 2013 to more than 70,000 in 2021.

Golden had a measure on its ballot asking voters to pass a mill levy override to boost funding for the city’s fire department — to the tune of $4.6 million a year. The measure was leading 54.4% to 45.6%, according to election results posted Tuesday evening.

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Coffman had received 32,533 votes, or 54.54% of the total, to Marcano’s 22,941 votes, or 38.46%, as of the latest results posted at about 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The third candidate in the nonpartisan race, Jeff Sanford, who ran a limited campaign, had received 4,178 votes, or 7%.

Although Marcano wasn’t ready to concede on Tuesday night, he acknowledged his loss Wednesday afternoon, saying that “the trends aren’t where they need to be” for him to win. He has not officially release a concession statement or called Coffman yet.

At Coffman’s election watch party after the 9 p.m. results were posted, Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky announced they were calling the race for Coffman. Conservative candidates running for council and the campaign against Proposition HH gathered at JJ’s Place in Aurora on Tuesday night.

Jurinsky’s announcement was met with chants of “Vote Juan out.”

“Four years ago, I won by less than 1%, over 70,000 votes cast, we won by about 250 votes,” Coffman said in a victory speech. “And it is a remarkable race to win by, I think we’re at 18 points right now.”

A Republican and former U.S. congressman, Coffman was elected to his first term leading the left-leaning city in 2019. In 2021, the City Council majority also flipped to conservative leadership. While Coffman and others running for local seats hope to see that trend continue, Marcano, a Democrat, and other progressive candidates were pushing to change that.

The election’s outcome, and the resulting balance of power, likely will affect Aurora’s approach to a growing homelessness problem and responses to concerns over policing and public safety. The suburban city also is contending with rising housing costs and neighborhoods’ efforts to stem gentrification as redevelopment prices lower-income families out of areas that used to be affordable.

Coffman, 68, said during the campaign that Aurora voters are interested in decreasing crime rates and reducing homelessness, and he hopes to continue some of the work he started to address those issues in the last four years. He’s often taken a tough-on-crime approach, and he spearheaded the city’s homeless camping ban.

On Tuesday night, he said the race came down to those issues.

“It was about a tough-on-crime approach that those people who supported me believe everyone in the city, regardless of where they live, has a right to live without a fear of being a victim of a crime,” he said. “And I think they want results on homelessness and encampments. And we’re going to move forward on being more aggressive about abatements but also being more aggressive about treatments.”

The third issue is affordable housing, he said, and the city is committed to increasing its affordable housing inventory by 2% year over year.

Though Marcano doesn’t disagree about the issues facing the city, he has advocated for different solutions. The 37-year-old has said he would address the root causes of rising crime and homelessness, including providing more resources to communities that have been neglected.

In 2019, Coffman narrowly defeated Omar Montgomery — but he couldn’t declare victory until nine days after Election Day following vote tallies and ballot-curing. But this year’s election was not as close.

Some of the City Council races in 2019 also finished as close as the mayor’s race, including in Marcano’s race for Ward IV, which he won by 230 votes.

As of the 4 p.m. results Wednesday, it appeared the City Council would be further increasing its conservative majority, with Republican-backed candidates also leading in the races for Ward IV, Ward V, Ward VI and one of the at-large seats.

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There are numerous local tax measures to consider in metro Denver ahead of the Nov. 7 election, including funding requests for police and fire services, sidewalks, open space acquisition and affordable housing. Suburban voters also will have new faces to choose from for local political office as long-time stalwarts exit the stage.

Most communities have elections for city council seats, and some for mayor, on the ballot. Several will ask voters to decide local ballot measures.

“They’re trying to address issues that are on the forefront of people’s minds — affordable housing, public safety,” said Kevin Bommer, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, which has put out a local election preview. “There’s a lot of catchup on infrastructure that communities are trying to make good on.”

RELATED: Colorado voter guide: Stories, explainers and endorsements for the 2023 election

Boulder will be using a new method — known as ranked-choice voting — to choose its next mayor, while Commerce City voters will get to decide whether ducks, chickens and bees are allowed in backyards. (Each creature gets its own ballot measure.)

The local section of Denver’s ballot will be slim, asking voters only to decide on a permanent extension of the city’s preschool tax, since it had its elections for mayor and City Council in the spring. But most suburbs hold their local contests in the fall, with candidates not running on partisan tickets.

Ballots were mailed to voters in recent days. Here is a look at a selection of races and issues that will be decided by suburban voters.

Lakewood, Arvada select new mayors

Among races with incumbents seeking reelection, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman is hoping to hold off two challengers. The former U.S. congressman is finishing up his first term as mayor of the city of nearly 400,000, a post he won by a whisker four years ago.

Thornton’s mayoral contest is notable because of the bad blood that has been spilled among council members representing Colorado’s sixth-largest city. Mayor Jan Kulmann, who has served on Thornton’s council for the past decade and as mayor since 2019, is being challenged by Councilwoman Julia Marvin.

Kulmann’s mere attempt to win re-election spurred a citizen lawsuit, with plaintiffs claiming her run for the city’s top office, combined with her years as councilwoman, violated Thornton’s term-limits statutes. Last December, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Kulmann was not in violation of term-limits restrictions, paving the way for her mayoral campaign this fall.

Several familiar names are saying farewell and making room for fresh suburban leadership.

Adam Paul, who has served a total of 16 years on the Lakewood City Council, will step down after a two-term run as mayor of Colorado’s fifth-largest city. He’s already taken a job as director of regional affairs for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.

“It’s been good to turn this page and move on,” Paul said.

The 46-year-old Lakewood native said the coronavirus pandemic made things tough during his final years as mayor. So did the contentious fight over housing that resulted in the passage of a 2019 ballot measure that limited the number of new homes that could be permitted by the city — a measure trumped this year by state law.

The spring 2017 hailstorm that damaged and shut down the Colorado Mills shopping mall, a big tax generator for the city, was a major challenge as well, the mayor said.

“The goods have been good, and the bads have been really bad,” Paul said. “It comes down to our ability to give back and care.”

There’s a three-way race for Paul’s seat between Lakewood Councilwoman Wendi Strom, businessman Don Burkhart and Cathy Kentner, a teacher and city planning commissioner who spearheaded the growth cap ballot measure four years ago.

Two cities to the north, Marc Williams is stepping down as Arvada’s mayor after serving 12 years in the post and another 12 years as a councilman. Now, he said, it’s time to be a “cheerleader from the cheap seats.”

“I want to go out and let new people take the helm,” said the former attorney.

When Williams started on council nearly a quarter of a century ago, Arvada had fewer than 100,000 residents. That number now eclipses 125,000. Olde Town has gone from a place of “mom and pop shops that were open on some days and not others” to a vital shopping district served by a commuter-rail line, Williams said.

It was also the site of tragedy when, in 2021, a man shot and killed an Arvada police officer and was in turn shot and killed himself by a Good Samaritan. That man, Johnny Hurley, was mistakenly killed by a police officer responding to the mayhem.

And then last year, 27-year-old officer Dillon Michael Vakoff was killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call.

“Those were the two darkest days of my mayorship,” said Williams, who at 67 is retiring.

John Marriott and Lauren Simpson, both current council members in Arvada, are facing off on Nov. 7 in the mayor’s race.

Sheridan will also be losing a councilman and former mayor who has served the city for two decades. Dallas Hall steps down in November from leading the city of 6,000 as councilman, a role he first took on in 1999.

Measures from street improvements to police funding

More than 75 municipal ballot measures are being considered across the state, according to the Colorado Municipal League. And not surprisingly, many are tax measures.

Castle Pines wants money for street improvements, Louisville wants to acquire open space acreage and work to prevent wildfires on those lands, while Golden seeks more cash for its fire department. In Brighton, the city will be asking for additional money for its police force.

“This is the first ask ever for dedicated law enforcement funding,” Brighton Police Chief Matt Domenico said. “The reason for this ask to voters is the fast pace of growth in the community. The police department has not been able to keep pace with that growth.”

The Adams County seat has grown from about 33,000 residents to nearly 43,000 today, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. With that population spike has come an increase in crime, Domenico said. Calls for service have jumped from about 40,000 in 2013 to more than 70,000 in 2021.

What had been typically one homicide at most per year in the city grew to four last year. Domenico said he’d like to add 12 sworn officers to the 85 or so he has now.

Brighton’s measure, which was placed on the ballot by the City Council in August, asks voters to add 0.15 percentage points to the city’s sales tax, which would amount to 15 cents on a $100 purchase. The money is expected to generate about $2 million annually to buttress Brighton’s police operations.

“It would take years to add these positions without a dedicated public safety fund,” Domenico said.

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The guard’s F-16s — fighter jets referred to as Fighting Falcons — are getting old, with most expected to start running out of useful life in about five years. Many of them were built in the late 1980s, and while updates potentially could extend their use for another three to four years, the planes’ retirement is on the horizon.

Local and federal elected leaders worry the planes’ twilight years could bring the eventual end of the flying mission for the Air National Guard’s 140th Wing — and, potentially, the closure of its active runway at Buckley. Three of Colorado’s members of Congress joined with Aurora city officials and local defense leaders recently in calling for the Pentagon to budget money to replace the aging fighter jets with new planes.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow and Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper warned that not doing so not only would imperil the 140th Wing’s future but also would affect the nation’s defense as well as emergency response capabilities in the state.

Federal lawmakers from several states have introduced bills to prevent the closure of Air National Guard fighter squadrons as the U.S. Air Force divests from aging aircraft without replacement plans. They also want to compel Air Force officials to explain how cutting fighter wings would be consistent with the priorities of the national defense strategy.

Crow, whose district includes Aurora, is among the bill sponsors. He said in an interview that the national defense strategy’s No.1 priority is homeland defense, something that aligns with the primary mission of the 140th Wing at Buckley.

The unit also is charged with being “responsible for the protection of the airspace over the western United States, including some of our most key national security assets in Colorado Springs, NORTHCOM and NORAD and others,” Crow said, referring to the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. “So it’s essential that we have aircraft available.”

Buckley Space Force Base, spanning 3,328 acres, previously was an Air Force base before it transitioned to being under the command of the newer U.S. Space Force in 2021, giving it an evolving mission in recent years. It is host to Space Base Delta 2 and missions under the Air Force and the Space Force tasked with space surveillance, space communications, space-based missile warnings and other operations.

Airmen and space professionals are also deployed from the base for combat, and it hosts multiple active duty and reserve units or support services for the military branches, including the Colorado guard’s 140th Wing.

During a news conference in September, Crow, Hickenlooper and Bennet stressed the base’s growing importance.

“The threat that Russia now poses, (and) that China’s going to pose over the next 30 years, means that we have to have the strongest, most integrated fighting force we can have,” Bennet said. “And the Air National Guard’s got to be a big part of that.

“We need to make the case about why this location, at this altitude (and) this close to these mountains — where these guys can fly missions that nobody can fly anywhere else, really, in the entire country — why this needs to remain a keystone in terms of the national defense footprint.”

The Colorado Air National Guard, part of the state’s National Guard, is also a reserve component of the U.S. Air Force. It has about 1,100 reserve members tied to the flying mission at Buckley. The wing is also helping train five pilots and 30 maintainers on active duty.

Many of the reserve members of the 140th Wing are highly experienced pilots who provide training to other military personnel.

The guard has 18 primary authorized F-16s, and the Air Force provides a few others to cycle through for maintenance. If they’re not replaced, the loss of those planes not only would affect the flying mission of the guard unit at Buckley but also the aircraft’s availability to the Air Force, said Colorado Air National Guard Commander Micah Fesler.

“It will impact the other combatant commanders that are out there,” he said. “So those airplanes wouldn’t be available … to go to the Middle East or to go to the Pacific or to go to Eastern Europe right now. So not replacing those airplanes leaves a gap in our national defense capability.”

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a military veteran, has been a vocal supporter of upgrading the fighter jet fleet. He worries about the potential of the remaining active runway closing entirely.

“It just tears the guts out of the Colorado Air National Guard” he said, “because really, at the heart of the Colorado National Guard is the F-16s.”

Gov. Jared Polis has supported the F-16 fleet replacements in comments to senior White House officials and the Pentagon, spokesperson Conor Cahill said. Cahill called the Buckley base “an integral part of the community and local economy as well as our national security architecture” in a statement.

Fesler said the 140th Wing has some of the most experienced fighter pilots in the Air Force, at a fraction of the cost to the government because many of them have full-time jobs working for commercial airlines. The airlines benefit by having pilots who are trained and have security clearances in exchange for allowing them to get deployed or participate in training as needed.

The Colorado Air National Guard’s mission goes beyond national defense. It was deployed at the height of the pandemic, for example, to run testing sites, assist in the state’s emergency operations center, and help manage five hotels where people who were homeless and COVID-positive were staying.

More recently, 10 airmen recovered human remains from a Penrose funeral home accused of improperly storing bodies.

The price tag for aircraft modernization is steep, since the new aircraft would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, whether the F-16s are replaced with F-35s or F-15EXs.

But Fesler suggested the alternative of not replacing the fighter jets would be more costly. The military would be forced to spend millions of dollars to maintain and operate the runway and bring in personnel from other units, along with aircraft from other parts of the country, for defense needs.

“The reality is no matter what they do, it’s going to increase overall expenses,” Fesler said.

In 2022, analysts estimated Buckley Space Force Base contributed about $1.38 billion to the economy, creating nearly 5,500 jobs.

“When you’re talking about the people that are there, you’ve got mechanics, you’ve got pilots, there’s guys that fly for United Airlines and Frontier that are also flying fighter planes,” said Dick Hinson, senior vice president of the Aurora Economic Development Council and a member of the Aurora Defense Council. The defense council is an arm of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce that supports military missions. “And so you’re giving up a lot (if the runway closes). … It would be a huge loss.”

The Colorado Air National Guard is not the only unit in the country facing a similar challenge, Fesler said. More than a dozen at least expect a need for “recapitalization,” or upgrades, for their aircraft within the next eight to 10 years.

The U.S. defense budget is roughly $800 billion per year, but Fesler said getting approval for new aircraft is still a challenge because a lot of critical military equipment funding was delayed as money went into the wars in the Middle East. He commended local, state and federal leaders for pushing for action.

Part of the problem, said Crow, a former Army Ranger, is that the Air Force is going through a “Divest to Invest” strategy in an effort to save billions of dollars.

“But the national security threats that we face right now require us to have those airplanes and those fighter wings to meet urgent current threats,” the congressman said.

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So far, though, these attempts to censor library books in Colorado appear to be largely unsuccessful amid backlash by outspoken community members

Libraries across the nation have seen efforts by a vocal, growing political movement seeking to restrict access to books on gay communities, race, history, sexuality and reproductive health, according to a new report from the American Library Association. They use social media to disseminate lists of books they disapprove of so followers can challenge them at their local public and school libraries, the report said.

Preliminary 2023 data from the American Library Association shows 136 titles were challenged in eight separate attempts to restrict access to books in Colorado libraries between January and August.

In 2022, the American Library Asociation reported 56 titles were challenged in 17 different requests to Colorado libraries, a 240% increase over the five titles challenged in five attempts recorded in 2018

The Colorado Department of Education’s Library Research Service tracks an even broader data set, including requests to limit access to or remove books, programs and events — including things like book displays that celebrate Pride month. The service documented a 500% increase — from 20 to 120 — between 2021 and 2022 in the number of challenges to materials or services provided in Colorado’s public libraries.

LGBTQ content was the most cited reason for book or event challenges in Colorado, according to the Library Research Service, accounting for 20% of last year’s 120 challenges. “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe was the most commonly challenged book, with 11 requests to limit access. The most frequently challenged event was drag queen story hour, with 38 challenges reported, according to Library Research Service.

Neither the state nor the American Library Association reported how many of the attempts to curb access to library materials were successful.

However, a number of events in the past year have made news in Colorado:

• Douglas County Libraries’ trustees voted in August to keep four books with LGBTQ themes on the shelves following a challenge by the founder of conservative group Freedom Fathers
• The Garfield County Library District last month rejected a patron’s request to place Japanese graphic novels — some with LGBTQ themes — on a top shelf away from children
• The town of Wellington’s Board of Trustees passed a measure that effectively bans book bans after a request to move 19 titles away from children drew outrage
• In Colorado Springs’ Academy School District 20, parents requested several books be removed from school libraries for allegedly being “obscene.” But the titles eventually were returned to shelves after someone requested the removal of the Bible.
• And a Weld County library district agreed to pay $250,000 to a librarian fired over LGBTQ programming after a state civil rights investigation found the district discriminated against the librarian

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said the increase in attempted book bans and censorship across the country is an attack on a public good.

“Public libraries are community institutions where everyone should be able to find a wide range of ideas and information reflected on the shelves,” Caldwell-Stone said. “We’re seeing an effort to turn libraries into places of indoctrination rather than education — only approving stories that meet the agenda of particular partisan advocacy groups or elected officials essentially telling us what we can think and know about. That’s an absolute violation of our First Amendment rights.”

A town bans book bans

Nationwide, the American Library Association recorded 696 attempts to censor library materials and services between January and August of this year, with 1,915 titles challenged.

That’s a 20% increase over the same time period in 2022, and already represents a new record for the number of book challenges in a single year since the association began tracking the data more than 20 years ago.

Last year, a book brouhaha embroiled Wellington, a fast-growing town of more than 11,700 people north of Fort Collins in Larimer County.

Wellington resident Christine Gaiter came across a list of books online branded as containing sexually graphic materials that could be inappropriate for children. She said it reminded her of a childhood incident in which she checked out a book from the library that appeared to be about ballerinas, but it ended up containing sex scenes.

“My reason is to protect children,” Gaiter told The Denver Post. “Right now, the books aren’t marked, so unless a parent knows the content of every book, they could possibly check one out not knowing there is objectionable material they don’t want their child to read. I want to allow parents to choose what is best for their children.”

Gaiter attended an August 2022 public meeting of the Wellington Board of Trustees — an elected body on which her husband Jon Gaiter serves as a member — and requested 19 book titles at the town’s public library be marked as sexually explicit and placed out of reach of children.

The titles included “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E.L. James, “Beloved” by Toni Morrison, “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer.

“People argued that I was trying to ban the books and that it was against their First Amendment rights,” Gaiter said. “The problem with that theory is the library can’t possibly hold all the books in the world so, right now, they’re actively banning books because they’re choosing some books over others on their shelves… Just because you’re removing a book from a publicly-funded place doesn’t get rid of your First Amendment right to go read it elsewhere.”

Wellington Trustee Rebekka Dailey said the saga unfolded over a couple of public meetings last year in which book ban supporters and a large number of dissenters turned out for public comment, sharing personal testimony on the matter.

“I’ve never seen such a passionate outcry,” Dailey said. “We’re a nice, small town, and this had really riled everyone. They posed it as if the library had an intent to distribute what they called ‘pornographic materials’ to children. People were crying, applauding, cheering, engaged. People were reliving childhood memories or sharing their worst moments in front of a crowd. You couldn’t help but be emotional because it felt like an attack on an innocent party.”

Wellington resident Heather Zadina and her 12-year-old daughter Sienna attended one of the meetings to speak out against restricting book access.

The Zadinas are a family of bookworms. Sienna’s favorite reads include the Harry Potter series, the Twilight books and Nancy Drew.

“I basically told them they can’t tell me what I can and can’t read,” Sienna told The Post. “I said that it’s sad that I have to grow up in a society where innocent books are banned.”

Heather Zadina said when a child reads something, it provides an opportunity to discuss what they have questions about.

“Whether it’s sexually explicit material, violence, history — that’s a wonderful opportunity to talk to your child and something the government should not be involved in,” she said.

In September of last year, the Wellington trustees voted in favor of a resolution presented by Dailey that prevents the board from restricting library materials — a ban on book bans, as it was referred to colloquially. Jon Gaiter voted against the resolution and another trustee abstained.

Christine Gaiter said she still believes in her proposal to remove certain books from kids’ reach because they’re too sexually explicit, but said she wouldn’t push for it in her community again.

“The resolution didn’t impact my life at all,” Christine Gaiter said. “It’s just a statement. I will still check the books my kids want to read against trusted sources and pick those out. The resolution did nothing.”

“This is my calling”

Caldwell-Stone, of the American Library Association, said the organization has tracked heightened attempts to “demonize” libraries and librarians across the country by attacking them on social media, making unfounded bomb threats to library buildings and calling for librarians to lose their jobs.

“We need to call on communities to support their libraries and librarians,” Caldwell-Stone said. “To go to board meetings, speak out in favor of the library and freedom to read and push back against that vocal minority demanding censorship of books.”

Information on how to best counter book censorship demands can be found at uniteagainstbookbans.org, Caldwell-Stone said.

Community members have called for James LaRue, executive director of the Garfield County Public Library District, to lose his job after a censorship dustup on the Western Slope.

For about a year, LaRue has opposed calls for adult Japanese graphic novels — some with LGBTQ themes — in Garfield County libraries to be stored on a top shelf away from children.

“We don’t shelve our collections by height,” LaRue told The Post. “We have no record of a child trying to check these out.”

LaRue put together a committee of library staff from different branches who have read the books to determine whether they should be retained, reclassified or removed. So far, LaRue said, his staff has recommended to keep the books as they are.

The fight over the Japanese graphic novels has popped up in monthly public meetings of the Garfield County Libraries Board of Trustees, during which some residents argued to burn the books or asked the library to reconsider LaRue’s employment, while others stood in solidarity with the county’s librarians.

The ongoing debate — residents have appealed the librarian’s decision to retain the books — isn’t new to LaRue, who previously served as executive director of the American Libraries Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation.

“I love the library,” LaRue said. “This is my calling. I can’t be quiet as people come in and try to muzzle voices they don’t want to hear.”

If someone is concerned about the contents of a particular book, LaRue said the great thing about a library is they can simply check out a different one.

“You have the right to supervise your child’s reading, but only your child’s,” LaRue said. “This is where you come when you get curious about the world. Libraries have meaning in public life. It requires a bit of courage to stand up to the mob and say, ‘No, we know what our job is, and we’re going to do it.'”

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The special election revolves around the issue of density in this suburb of 34,000, where a contingent of residents mounted a campaign earlier this year to recall four of Englewood’s seven City Council members. One of the targeted members, Cheryl Wink, resigned over the summer and wasn’t on the ballot Tuesday.

Mayor Othoniel Sierra, Councilwoman Chelsea Nunnenkamp and Councilman Joe Anderson were targeted for recall.

According to unofficial results released after 10 p.m. Tuesday, Sierra received 654 votes against recall and 465 in favor. Anderson had a better margin — 988 to 734 against recall. Nunnenkamp’s election was the closest, with voters in her district defeating a recall 593 votes to 564 votes.

It wasn’t clear how many ballots still needed to be tallied.

Those behind the recall effort accused the four council members of being too pro-density and pushing for a change to the city’s land-use code that “looks like it was written for developers and people wanting to cash out,” according to the recall campaign’s website. Englewood has seen a significant uptick in condo and apartment building in recent years.

There is too much crime in the city, recall backers say, claiming that “homeless people use drugs openly around Englewood,” and that squeezing more homes on to the same footprint in the city won’t help the situation.

Kurt Suppes, a longtime resident of Englewood who helped lead the recall effort, declined to comment Tuesday.

The recall election in Englewood echoes a conflict that is emerging in Colorado, as home prices continue to escalate in the face of a housing shortage. Residents in Fort Collins recently repealed at the ballot box zoning reforms that city leaders had passed to encourage density in the city.

At the statewide level, a land-use reform bill that would have paved the way for the construction of more multifamily projects in Colorado died in the final hours of the 2023 legislative session.

But whether the incident will be a deciding factor at the ballot box a little more than 13 months from now is uncertain. Several voters in a small pocket of Boebert’s sprawling, largely rural 3rd Congressional District told The Denver Post this week that the events earlier this month in Denver are just part of a larger mix in how they view the Republican congresswoman.

“What happened in her personal life is unfortunate, but at the end of the day, it has no bearing on her legislating,” said Christy Ruckus, a Pueblo Republican who is all in on Boebert in 2024. “I’m not concerned — peoples’ memories are short.”

Boebert was escorted out of the Buell Theatre on Sept. 10 after patrons around her at the “Beetlejuice” musical complained she was vaping, recording the show on her phone and otherwise being disruptive. Boebert initially denied vaping but surveillance video from inside the venue, released in the following days, showed she hadn’t been truthful about that.

The video also showed groping between her and a male companion at the theater. Boebert issued an apology late last week, saying she was “truly sorry for the unwanted attention my Sunday evening in Denver has brought to the community.”

“We know we will have to work to earn your trust back and it may not happen overnight, but we will do it,” Boebert wrote.

Thomas Moore Jr., a lifelong resident of Pueblo who voted for Boebert in 2020 and 2022 and was picking up collector plates for his Mercedez-Benz at the county building on Thursday, said anyone can make a mistake. But he said his frustration with the congresswoman has been building.

“I think it has gotten to her head — that she is worthy of our vote because of the things she says rather than the things she does,” Moore Jr. said.

But he said whoever her opponent is next year would have to be extraordinary for him to cast a vote for a Democrat. Boebert faces competition from her own party in next year’s primary contest that she must defeat before even getting to the general election on Nov. 5, 2024.

She barely won re-election last year against Democrat and former Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch. The race was so close it triggered an automatic recount.

For voters who haven’t been with Boebert from the beginning, the congresswoman’s antics at the Buell make little difference in how they see her.

“I am not a fan at all,” said Mary Aguilar, a registered Democrat in Pueblo who was also taking care of a license plate matter at the county building. “She is way hard right for me.”

Same goes for Laurie McIlvaine, who owns a liquor store an hour down the road from Pueblo in the tiny town of La Veta. McIlvaine, a hunter who has lived in this community at the base of the Spanish Peaks for 32 years, said she “has a lot of understanding of the conservative base.”

“But I just can’t get with her,” she said.

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