April 01, 2011 12:00 AM UTC

The Race for Second Place is On

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• by: Colorado Pols

We got an e-mail from James Mejia this afternoon, and if anything, it lets us know just what every Mayoral candidate is angling for:

James Mejia, candidate for Denver Mayor, released the following statement after Michael Hancock made statements at a debate last night that Hancock knows to be false.

“At last night’s candidate forum, Michael Hancock accused me of “quitting on schools and children,” claiming incorrectly that I left my position on the Denver School Board only one and a half years into my four-year term. Michael knows those facts to be wrong and his attack on my commitment to Denver’s children is misguided,” Mejia said.

Folks, while Mejia can talk at length to his dedication to a clean campaign, what everything really boils down to is the fact that every candidate knows Romer is the candidate to beat. Don’t get us wrong: we’re not saying Romer will necessarily make it through to the run-off. What we are saying, however, is that all the other candidates seem to think that. First it was Carol Boigon’s negative ad aimed at Hancock and Doug Linkhart, and now Mejia’s jab at Hancock.

Mejia has no reason to attack Hancock, and Hancock has no reason to smear Mejia if they weren’t so sure that Romer was going to survive this round of voting. In a race with 6 mainstream candidates, Mejia has no reason to pick a fight with Hancock and vice-versa if they weren’t nervous about making it through to the runoff. In fact, candidates like Boigon, Mejia, Hancock, and to some extent Linkhart haven’t really attacked Romer because they know that if they make it through to the run-off, they can campaign against Romer later.

It makes sense.  Romer’s leading with money raised, cash on hand, and in the polls. We can’t say whether or not Romer is the best candidate for the job, but he’s certainly the best at everything a candidate needs to do to be Mayor. The other candidates in the race know this, and that’s why they’re spending money now to attack each other.

Look at their press releases and campaign ads. The other 5 candidates have not made a concentrated effort to campaign against Romer. In fact, we’re sure Mejia could’ve taken issue with any score of things Chris said last night. Instead, he focused on Hancock.

We’ve got just a few weeks left until the first phase of this race is all wrapped up. It remains to be seen who’ll make it to the run-off election, but we can almost guarantee, the candidates seem to think that it’s going to be Romer vs. someone else.