‘22 Boulder Democratic Primary Voter Guide
You might have skimmed your Democratic Primary ballot and wondered, “Are there any competitive races!?” Yes, there are! In Boulder County we have two! County Commissioner District 3 and the Sheriff’s Office. And these races are vastly important for how policy is made and/or exercised at the County level.
We evaluated this year’s candidates on their understanding of the connections between land use, the environment, and social justice. But our primary criteria for endorsement was looking at the outcomes of their efforts in their current roles and what that would indicate for how they might act once in office.
TL;DR: Just tell me who to vote for!
We are proudly supporting Elaina Shively for County Commissioner!!!
We are impressed with her background as a public defender, taking on the role of helping those with no means to defend themselves. When looking at outcomes we look to her work in the District Attorney’s office driving the Center for Prevention and Restorative Justice and the successes that program has had in diverting over 600 cases per year. In her role as Director she has been able to develop programs that support meaningful accountability from offenders while providing them the services needed to return to society and at the same time creating harm repair outcomes that 95% of victims are satisfied with. This balancing of needs and the ability to do so graciously is a quality we look forward to her bringing to the role of County Commissioner.
At a time when retaining county staff is getting harder to do we can point to the employee well being programs she’s implemented at the DA’s office as actions she can bring to county commissioner role.
She has worked closely with trauma victims of sexual assault, the King Soopers shooting, and the Marshall fire and understands deeply the urgency in needing to address how we heal from these events personally and as a community.
We, like so many of the progressive elected officials that have also endorsed her, would be elaited ;) to have such an accomplished and empathetic County Commissioner like Elaina.
Okay….but don’t the other candidates stand for the same things? No, we do not believe they do.
Maybe in words, but certainly not in actions. Performative displays are easy, following through on the work is hard. Thus our focus in this process of looking at outcomes. Our work started in the City of Boulder where for too long, our community had elected PLAN-endorsed candidates based on the promises made on the campaign trail, only for them to delay, obfuscate, or block pragmatic solutions once on council. We see many of these PLAN traits in Elaina’s opponent.
When we look at Louisville and we see the continued delay, blocking, or sowed confusion around the redevelopment of Red Tail Ridge, or the asphalt ocean parking lots of dead big box retail stores, or the influx of 5,000 square foot net zero homes but not the proliferation of home types that fire victims or working families can live in… we begin to question the sincerity and honesty of someone’s candidacy. When 9NEWS’ investigative reporting team is continually deterred and ignored in their quest for answers about what happened during the Marshall Fire, we wonder if this candidate has the ability to handle countywide decisions.
For a county that prides itself on living its progressive values there is only one choice for County Commissioner, Elaina Shively.
Further reading: Boulder Beat
Additionally, there’s the race for the Sheriff’s Office. We do not feel comfortable making an endorsement in that race but there are stark differences in the candidates. Curtis Johnson has spoken at length for greatly increasing mental health and diversion resources (in addition to getting a Mom’s Demand Action distinction) while his opponent dropped an ‘All Lives Matter’ reference at a recent forum. We believe the unmentioned candidate may have forgotten which party primary he had entered. Check out the Boulder Beat’s coverage of this race.
