Fort Collins mayor's race won't be uncontested. Here's who's running

The race for mayor of Fort Collins will be a two-person race after all.

Mayor Jeni Arndt filed to run for re-election and until last week was the only choice for voters.

On Aug. 31, Patricia Babbitt filed paperwork to run as a write-in candidate for Fort Collins mayor.

Babbitt has been a Fort Collins resident for more than 30 years and currently teaches English as a second language to immigrant refugees at Front Range Community College. She made a career of that both in the United States and abroad, including at Colorado State University for 17 years.

Last week Babbitt was at home listening to the news on KUNC, when she heard a sequence of local, national and international stories covering issues of importance that helped inspire her to run for mayor. The final story was that Mayor Jeni Arndt was so far unopposed in her race for re-election and anyone who wanted to run as a write-in candidate had until Sept. 5 to file paperwork.

So she did.

The two candidates have taken some similar paths in life, and Babbitt said there's a lot they agree on. Both have been teachers, including for English as a second language. Both have lived and worked abroad. Both are registered Democrats.

But in Fort Collins, more conversations and different perspectives are needed, Babbitt said. "If there’s nobody running against (Arndt), we won’t have important conversations."

"I totally agree with Jeni and some of the others that we need to focus more on transit," she said, but as a person who doesn't drive, Babbitt believes she brings a unique perspective. And she thinks a lot of Fort Collins residents have ideas that aren't part of current city brainstorming and problem solving.

For Babbitt, the land development code is an important conversation to have this election season. "I do think it’s well intended, but I do have questions," and she's not sure it will address affordable housing concerns the ways some people think it will.

She's also concerned about how the former Hughes Stadium land will develop as open space. She said she's a cyclist who has hardly driven a car in her life, but she doesn't think putting a mountain bike park on that land is the right thing for it, nor what residents wanted when they voted to designate it as a permanent open space.

Arndt said housing will be an important conversation to have this election season, along with the underlying issue, which is the changing community, how it's growing and how it's going to choose to grow smartly.

In doing so, her approach is to listen to the community and reflect their ideas. "I share my values with people ... and in terms of each policy, I listen to the community and reflect back on my value set and on what I heard from the community."

But having another person in the race changes nothing about her philosophy, Arndt said: "I always run for something; I never run against anyone, so I’ve always been running for mayor, and I’m still running for mayor."

"I think it's very healthy for democracy when people have a choice," she said. "I hope the community stays engaged and selects people to serve as mayor and on council that they feel comfortable with serving in these roles."

Arndt grew up in Fort Collins. She's a former Peace Corps volunteer, special education teacher and school principal.

When she was first elected mayor in 2021 she was representing Fort Collins' House District 53 at the Colorado statehouse. She was first elected to that seat in 2014.

She won the mayor's race with 63% of the votes. Marketing executive Molly Skold and former mayor and City Council member Gerry Horak also ran.

Babbitt's name will not appear on the city's Nov. 7 ballot. She'll need voters to write her name on the provided line on the ballot. That fact has Babbitt thinking on how she can get the word out about herself, and she's not convinced yard signs are the answer.

"I think about the waste," she said, noting that her entire life has been focused on not being wasteful. "I’m trying to think of other ways to get the word out there besides yard signs" because even recycled things take so many resources.

The Coloradoan will have deeper coverage of this race, the issues within it and all the City Council races on the November ballot starting in October.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins election 2023: Jeni Arndt, Patricia Babbitt vie for mayor