Fight in Colorado Springs mayoral runoff comes down to contrasting energies on the campaign trail

Apr. 5—Competing campaigns in the weeks ahead of Colorado Springs' mayoral runoff election next month could tell a tale of two cities.

The new political energy of Yemi Mobolade's campaign, punctuated by a chanting crowd of hundreds of people who celebrated his early lead in the mayor's race Tuesday night, will over the next six weeks likely face the more traditional energy of Wayne Williams' campaign. The longtime politician's get-out-the vote effort has benefited from strong name recognition and featured mailers, television and social media to spur residents to head to the ballot box.

"Yemi has a chance to really make this an actual fight," said professor Josh Dunn, chairman of the political science department at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

Mobolade, an entrepreneur and political newcomer, and Williams, a Colorado Springs councilman, were likely to emerge victorious in Tuesday's mayoral race. As of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Mobolade had 29.8% of the vote while Williams garnered about 19.2% of votes, unofficial returns show. Sallie Clark, who was a close third, withdrew from the race Wednesday afternoon.

If those results hold through the final tally, the candidates will go head to head in a runoff election scheduled for May 16 because neither earned more than 50% of the vote.

Results will be certified by April 14, city clerk's officials said in a Wednesday news release.

On Tuesday night hundreds of Mobolade's supporters — most donning a variety of pins, stickers or polos emblazoned with his campaign logo — packed the COS CityHub venue managed by Discovery Church.

Between waves of election result updates, food trucks and a live band fed and entertained attendees. At the same time, campaign staff guided others to flyers with donation guides.

Across town, about 50 of Williams' supporters gathered in a reception room at the Patty Jewett Golf Course clubhouse. Several people stopped in just long enough to wish Williams luck — including, at one point, opponent Mobolade — but dozens of diehards stuck around for the entire watch party.

Several stalwarts, including outgoing Mayor John Suthers and representatives from the Colorado Springs Police Protective Association and Colorado Springs Professional Firefighters, were in attendance. Suthers, as well as both organizations, gave Williams their endorsement.

For the two mayoral hopefuls, the parties were the launch point for the next 40 days of campaigning — a push that will require a lot of work, local politicos said.

Though city elections are nonpartisan, Colorado Springs residents have typically elected more conservative members to the mayor's office and the City Council. Williams will likely have to go to work repairing some of the fracturing among the local Republican Party, Dunn said.

"If those divisions can be repaired, then you would think he has a significant advantage going into the runoff election," he said. "The votes should be there. But the question is whether or not that's doable."

Williams could also try to paint Mobolade as too progressive a candidate for the city, Dunn said.

"He will certainly try to paint Yemi as being farther to the left than Colorado Springs would be comfortable with," he said.

Meanwhile, Mobolade — who has said during his campaign he is neither a Republican nor a Democrat — will need to expand his reach to gain some of the more "libertarian elements of the conservative voting bloc" in town, Dunn said. It's a challenge that could come down to fundraising, he said.

Both candidates should concentrate on getting endorsements from other mayoral candidates, said Dunn and Mike Williams, executive director of Citizens Project, a local nonprofit that focuses on civic engagement.

A recently approved controversial water rule that prevents large land annexations into the city sparked a tug of war between major developers and "dark money" donors in this year's mayoral and council races. The fight took center stage in the mayor's race, particularly between Williams and Clark.

Norwood Development Group, which would benefit heavily from the new water rule, and people associated with the company, have backed Williams. Other developers who have seen or could see their properties blocked from coming into the city — such as La Plata Communities, which has seen its large proposed development near Fountain blocked by the rule — largely backed Clark.

It was still too early to tell on Wednesday which candidate, Mobolade or Williams, voters and the donors who supported Clark could throw their support behind in a mayoral runoff, but "the question is, how much control does she actually have over her voters?" Dunn said.

"Wayne and Sallie's campaigns were very against each other. I think that developed people in Sallie's camp who would not vote for Wayne," said Citizens Project's Mike Williams.

Clark said in her concession she was withholding her endorsement in the runoff election.

Wayne Williams' endorsements, including from Suthers and The Gazette editorial board, could also be more important to voters in a runoff election, Mike Williams said.

But Mobolade's chances of winning a runoff could still be better than Richard Skorman's chances were when the city held its first runoff mayoral election in 2011, Dunn said.

That year Skorman, a progressive, earned nearly 36% of the vote in the regular election, while Bach garnered just over 33% among eight candidates.

Later, in the runoff election, Bach soundly defeated Skorman. He garnered 57% of the vote to Skorman's almost 43%.

"I think (Mobolade) has some advantages that Skorman does not have. I suspect he actually has a lot more connections to the conservative community in Colorado Springs than Skorman did, his religious affiliations being kind of a prominent one," Dunn said.

Mobolade served as a pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, then later co-founded the nonprofit COSILoveYou and the CityServe Day movement that united more than 100 churches in service to the community.

Importantly, both campaigns will need to pull more voters in on election day, May 16, Mike Williams said.

According to figures from the City Clerk's Office as of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, only about 35% of the city's approximately 311,900 active registered voters had cast ballots in Tuesday's election.

"I think people that haven't been voting are going to be very interested in someone who is going to be energized in getting them to vote," Mike Williams said. "Wayne and Yemi ... will have to make sure they're relating to the constituents they're going to represent in all districts."

The Gazette's O'Dell Isaac and Brooke Nevins contributed to this report.