Sarah Horn, a graduate student at the University of Colorado came by our recent Meet the Candidates debate at the Fox Theatre. Here's her take on it:

Sarah Horn

Meet the Candidates

October 22, 2009

The audience members at the Fox Theater texted their way to electing candidate Valerie Mitchell for mayor of Boulder.

In an innovative style forum, New Era Colorado and Elephant Journal invited the 13 candidates running for the five open Boulder City Council seats to the Fox on Oct. 12. The event, Meet the Candidates: Boulder City Council, was set up with American Idol in mind. 

Audience members could vote off stage the least agreeable competitors. Candidates were questioned in four rounds, one question for all of the candidates, then questions from the judges and a third portion that ranged from a trivia question to performing a joke. 

“A dyslexic man walked into a bra,” said Fenno Hoffman in the shortest one-liner, eliciting a lot of laughter from the crowd.

After each round, the audience shows support for a candidate by texting their name to a number that is then logged and shown as a percentage on a white screen hung on stage. Everyone can watch the bars beside the names grow and shrink as more and more people vote. People shouted out the names of candidates they wanted to stay on stage to encourage more votes. There were five hopeful council members sitting on the stage at the end, representing the five open seats.

The organic gardener representing the 50 percent of residents that reside in rentals and a self-proclaimed underdog, Valerie Mitchell, was crowned mayor with a pink-feathered crown.

A student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Kristin Green, didn’t know anything about Mitchell or the non-incumbent candidates before the event.

“I had a really good time, the interactive texting and audience participation was cool,” Green said, right before the band, the Dovekins started playing as post-event entertainment. “You get more information out of the candidates, I am definitely going to vote now.”

The other candidates remaining for the final round were Tim Plass, Fenno Hoffman, Macon Cowles and Jyotsna Raj. Two incumbents were not at the event. The current mayor, Matt Appelbaum failed to show up despite confirming his participation with New Era and Suzy Ageton had the flu.

The event was geared towards young adult and college aged constituents that are usually not as involved in local politics. The questions posed addressed broad social concerns - creating local jobs, making Boulder more affordable, reducing Boulder’s carbon footprint, encourage diversity and avoiding over-regulation - that affect young people.

Candidate Jyotsna Raj felt that all forums should be in this format.

“It’s great to see young people involved in the process,” Raj said. “Older people are disproportionately heard, therefore they have a bigger impact.”

One of the judges, Ryan Van Duzer, a local journalist and columnist for Boulder’s dailycamera.com, participated in the event to bring humor and excitement to local politics.