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Jeremy Myer over at the Denver newspaper today had an interesting piece on Wil Alston’s primary task of raising the profile of Michael Hancock to garner the mayor some national attention. As Myer points out, Hickenlooper as mayor had an enviable national image. His quirky, soft-spoken personality partnered with his sharp political acumen made him seem like the perfect person to represent Denver nationally. Indeed, Hick’s term as Denver’s de-facto spokesperson culminated in his appearance during the Democratic National Convention in 2008. It’s because the Mayor of Denver also serves as a representative of Colorado and its culture that we’ve always called the position the marquee elected position in Colorado.

The thing is, Michael Hancock is no John Hickenlooper. Not yet, anyway. Hancock’s story is certainly inspirational, gripping, and really something admirable. Yet Hancock just doesn’t have the same personality as Hick. It’s nothing against Hancock; what’s made Hickenlooper such a teflon mayor-cum-governor is that he seemed like somebody you’d want to sit down and have a beer with, somebody you could trust because he’d have no reason to lie to you. Hickenlooper’s communications shop didn’t have to work so hard to promote the mayor’s image because John was already a decent ambassador for the state.

We’d be proud to have Michael Hancock take on the same national profile as John Hickenlooper. Still, we feel it’s a little too soon for Alston to be shopping around Hancock’s story. It feels a little…corporate. While Hancock’s rise to mayor would certainly make good fodder for the Today show, it would be even better if Hancock was first given the chance to accomplish something in the office. If Hancock shines in Denver we have no doubt his name will be brought up for Governor or any other statewide office soon enough. However, if Alston succeeds and Hancock assumes a national profile this early on in his administration, his local and national reputation will be damaged ten times more if he doesn’t remain popular.

The paradox here is that Alston’s communications shop is trying to make Hancock look the natural heir to John Hickenlooper from a national perspective, something that John Hickenlooper would never do or at least admit to doing. The more Alston pushes Hancock’s story, the less organic it seems, the less “Hickenlooper-like” it is. What Alston should be doing is letting Hancock inherit the role; instead of pushing Hancock, he should be showcasing how Hancock is, to borrow the slogan, “moving Denver forward.” That takes time because it takes more than replacing the welcome voice at DIA or snagging a 3 minute appearance with Matt Lauer to have a track record you can brag about.

FOX 31’s Eli Stokols, following a day-long marathon of Hancock inauguration coverage, has this interesting political tidbit:

FOX 31 Denver has confirmed that Hancock is close to hiring two deputies who will assist Chief of Staff Janice Sinden, announced last week.

Outgoing Clerk and Recorder Stephanie O’Malley, the daughter of former Mayor Wellington and Wilma Webb, will serve as Deputy Chief of Staff overseeing policy.

And Evan Dreyer, Hancock’s campaign manager and former Gov. Bill Ritter’s communications director, may join the administration as Deputy Chief of Staff for special projects.

Dreyer is still in the vetting process.

Folks, Hancock is smart in bringing Stephanie O’Malley on board. Her service as Denver’s first clerk following the disastrous election in 2006 under the Denver Elections Commission has been marked by general approval. We always thought that the clerkship was an odd job for O’Malley, though. As the daughter of Wellington and Wilma Webb she was born into enough clout to go further than the clerk’s office. On top of that, those that know her best know that she’s both incredibly sharp and politically calculating. She’s also got a JD from DU. In short, she fits the Deputy Chief of Staff mold perfectly and should be ideal for the administration.

We raised an eyebrow when we saw that Evan Dreyer still hasn’t settled in yet. Dreyer, who managed the campaign at least nominally, was well-liked as Press Secretary in Governor Ritter’s administration. We never thought he’d be Chief-of-Staff, but we thought he’d find at least some senior position even after his perceived mishandling of the post-election day prostitution allegations. The fact that Hancock’s campaign manager has yet to be vetted for a spot in the administration is odd, to say the least.  

A happy ending (and campaign olive branch profferred) in the case of the able former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy, reports FOX 31’s Eli Stokols:

Mayor-elect Michael Hancock is expected to name former Colorado Treasurer Cary Kennedy as the city’s Chief Financial Officer on Wednesday, FOX 31 Denver has learned.

Kennedy, who was an outspoken supporter of Hancock’s runoff opponent, Chris Romer, this spring, was widely considered a rising star in Colorado Democratic circles until her defeat last year at the hands of Republican Walker Stapleteon.

Kennedy served one term as treasurer from 2007-2011 and was lauded, at least by Democrats, for her conservative approach to managing state revenues amidst the recession. A nonpartisan audit released Tuesday also praised Kennedy for her work.

It takes only 3,973 cured signatures  to qualify an issue for the Denver ballot. That might sound like quite a few, but in reality, that’s chump change, especially for the professional organizations which specialize in signature gathering.

That’s why we’re not terribly surprised to have received this press advisory today. From the Campaign for a Healthy Denver:

DENVER – Forty advocates wearing infectious disease masks will deliver more than three times the 3,973 petition signatures required to qualify for the ballot to the Denver City Clerk on Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.  

WHAT:            Denver paid sick and safe time initiative campaign submission of petition signatures to qualify for November ballot

WHO:              Campaign for a Healthy Denver activists; a local business owner, a public health expert and a campaign spokesperson will make brief remarks

WHEN:            Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.

WHERE:          Office of the Denver City Clerk, 201 W. Colfax Ave., Department 101/first floor, Denver

WHY:              Submit petition signatures for the paid sick and safe days initiative for Denver’s November ballot

VISUALS:        Forty advocates will wear infectious disease masks; Large stack of petitions to be handed to city clerk staff

This is a pretty uncontroversial issue and we can’t see many people opposing it. At the very least, we can’t see the type of vocal opposition needed to take this kind of issue down. Polling has indicated that 65% of Denver voters would support the measure, and while we’re not entirely sure that the margin will be that high, we’re confident that the hardest part of this whole process will be getting the measure on the ballot.

Still, though, what an odd way to get press attention. They’re going to have 40 people wearing infectious disease masks down at city hall? Imagine the poor TV viewers who had the volume off when they see that footage pop up on screen. It’s going to be a SARS scare all over again. But hey, at least you could get paid for the time you take off work.  That is if hypochondria qualifies under this measure.  

This is a poll of the Denver mayoral runoff race between former Colorado Sen. Chris Romer and Denver City Councilman Michael Hancock, released by Colorado Pols and conducted by Denver-based RBI Strategies & Research. The result of this poll shows a small, well within the margin-of-error lead for Hancock, with 41%, followed by Romer with 37%.

Here’s a detailed summary from RBI research director Kevin Ingham:

RBI Survey Shows Close Race with Hancock Leading Romer by 4 Points

A new survey of likely 2011 municipal runoff voters in Denver shows a close race for the next mayor of Denver.  Just one week after Romer taking the top spot in the first round, Hancock now leads the race for the runoff by a 41% to 37% margin.

In the weeks since RBI’s last survey of the mayoral race, Hancock’s name ID has seen a large boost with only 26% identifying an opinion of him in March and 74% able to identify him now.  Further, Hancock’s favorable name ID now out paces Romer’s with 64% saying they have a favorable opinion and 10% having an unfavorable opinion.  For Romer’s part, he has also experienced a boost in name ID with 51% identifying him in March and 79% able to identify him now.  However, negative opinion of Romer outpaces Hancock with 53% having a favorable opinion and 26% having an unfavorable opinion.

Hancock’s narrow lead is based upon a lead among Democrats, progressives, African Americans and North East Denver voters.  Romer leads among Republicans, men and conservatives.  Undecided voters are disproportionately Mejia voters, Central Denver voters, and those skipped the first round election but plan to vote in the runoff.

RBI Strategies & Research conducted a telephone survey of 400 Denver voters who indicated it was likely that they would vote in the June 2011 Municipal Election.  Interviews were conducted May 9 – 11, 2011 by Standage Market Research of Denver, Colorado, a market research firm specializing in telephone survey interviewing.  Respondents were randomly selected from a list of Colorado voters, purchased from Voter Contact Services, who registered after the 2010 General Election or voted in the 2010 General Election and either 1) voted in at least one off-year election dating back to 2003 or 2) registered after 2009 off-year election.

Today, as a favor to our friends at RBI, we’re releasing the details exclusively via RBI Strategies’ Facebook page. Please click through to get the full toplines and crosstabs for the poll–don’t worry, you can still access the results even if you’re one of the few people online anymore who doesn’t have a Facebook account. But don’t forget to give RBI a ‘Like’ if you do!

Mr. Ingham will join Colorado Pols readers at 1PM today for a Q&A session on the results of this poll.

The rumor mill is out in full force today, on what might be the ultimate tipping point in the race for Mayor thus far.

From a statement we received from the Michael Hancock campaign, following James Mejia’s apparent endorsement of Chris Romer:

I know this was not an easy decision for James to make. He ran a great campaign and I wish him luck in his future endeavors. From the beginning of our campaign, we knew this was going to be a race earned through hard work. I am no stranger to struggle and am determined to win this race. We will continue to build momentum and will work hard to earn the support of Denver voters over the next four weeks, including those who voted for James. We are all Denver and we welcome Mejia supporters to Team Hancock.

Folks, it doesn’t matter what Mejia was offered, if anything, to endorse Romer. Both candidates were courting Mejia aggressively, and the fact that James has lent his support to Romer absolutely kills Hancock’s chances at becoming Mayor. The only way Hancock could compete against Romer, who has much more money, much higher name ID, and fewer negatives, was to garner a Mejia endorsement and use that to coalesce his significant bloc of supporters. At the very least, Hancock HAD to keep Mejia neutral — endorsing Romer is an absolute disaster.

Even if Hancock couldn’t get Mejia’s endorsement, he had to at least keep James neutral. Hancock’s officially lost the ability to say that there is a huge group against Romer now that the latter has garnered an endorsement from the candidate who nearly beat Hancock himself.

With Mejia’s endorsement, Romer is that much more the frontrunner. Hancock may have been able to beat Romer if he could solidify an “Anybody but Romer” coalition. That’s not happening now. Mejia scored nearly 30,000 votes in his own right. That’s a solid bloc that Hancock needed to make himself look viable.

This is it, folks. The race is essentially won. Hancock doesn’t have the money or name ID that Romer has. Now he doesn’t even have a coalition. June 7th is still a long time from today, but what is Hancock’s path to victory now? We just don’t see one.