It’s election time! The ANC conducted a brief survey of all of the candidates for Boulder City Council. Here you can find each candidate’s detailed responses. Jenny Robins was the only candidate who did not respond to our survey.

There are eleven candidates running for Boulder City Council competing for four available seats. Of these candidates, we believe six of them are most viable based on endorsements, fundraising numbers, and campaign activity. Of these six candidates, there are three whom we are endorsing. We think these three are most favorable to the ANC’s campaign to gain local control and repurpose the land (yay!). The other three expressly want to keep the airport (boo!) so we expressly recommend against voting for them. 

• ANC ENDORSED- YAY! 
  
  
  
  ✅ Mark Wallach
  ✅ Lauren Folkerts
  ✅ Nicole Speer

The ANC endorses these three candidates, each of whom has demonstrated high viability to win this election.

• They are all incumbents with name recognition.
• They have been endorsed by multiple organizations.
• They met the city’s fundraising cap for matching funds - $11,994 achieved via $100 maximum donations per individual - demonstrating broad local support. 
• They have run strong, informative, engaging campaigns.
  
• They are the best choices to prevent a pro-airport take-over of City Council. 

Mark Wallach is two-term incumbent on Council, retired from a long and varied career including law, real estate, and politics. Mark has been the biggest champion of the ANC on City Council. He consistently speaks loud and clear about repurposing the airport especially to obtain middle income housing that Boulder desperately needs. In fact, this is prominently featured on his campaign website. He has written about airport repurposing multiple times including this guest opinion for the Daily Camera and this one. Mark is our top recommendation for this race. You can read about Mark and his other policy positions at his campaign website. 

Lauren Folkerts is the current Boulder Mayor Pro-Tem (i.e. Vice Mayor) and a local architect. She is running for re-election to Council. She is a sharp, consistent voice on Council for policy that advances affordability, housing, and climate goals and increases equity. Lauren supported the city entering into the lawsuit to clarify legal obligations to the FAA and commented on our questionnaire “I believe any consideration of the site’s future should involve a transparent public process, grounded in community input, and alignment with Boulder’s long-term goals.” She also supports operating the airport to minimize noise, pollution, and other impacts on the community. In her first term, Lauren has recused herself from Council consideration of airport land use issues due to a potential conflict of interest with her architectural firm. With the airport’s future in a bit of legal limbo until 2040 anyway and Council unable to take action on repurposing any time soon, keeping pro-airport folks off Council needs to be the highest priority in this election. Having Lauren on Council for another four years will be a plus for our campaign. Read more about Lauren and her policy positions at her campaign website. 

Nicole Speer ran a brain imaging lab at CU for many years, losing her job recently due to federal funding cuts. She is a past Mayor Pro-Tem and is seeking re-election to Council.  Read more about Nicole and her policy positions at her campaign website. Nicole’s first term on Council has been distinguished by a consistent focus on equity, community-building, and sound financial management. In this race, she has emphasized the challenges ahead of the city given the volatility at the national level. She is cautious about committing to any specific outcomes until these issues can be considered by Council, grounded in good staff work and public involvement. On the ANC’s questionnaire, she says “At minimum, the future of the airport must include unleaded fuel, safe operations for airport users and surrounding neighborhoods, and continued progress on noise abatement … I will always make decisions based on facts, legality, sound financial management, and alignment with citywide strategic plans and community goals.” In an atmosphere where a strong pro-aviation lobby is pressuring candidates to come out as pro-airport, we need Council Members like Nicole who have resisted that pressure, and who will listen to science, data, and local community input. We believe keeping Nicole on Council for another term will be good for our cause. 

OTHER CANDIDATES

We strongly recommend that you vote for the three highly viable candidates we have endorsed: Mark Wallach, Lauren Folkerts, and Nicole Speer.

If you are looking for a candidate for your fourth vote, you might take a look at Montserrat Palacios Rodarte, Rachel Rose Isaacson, or Rob Smoke. While we don’t think these other candidates have the campaign oomph to win election this year, we appreciate and are intrigued by their favorable positions on airport management and repurposing. You can read their responses to the ANC questionnaire here. If you are considering a 4th vote for one of these candidates, we recommend you also look into their other policy positions and campaign activity. 

It's a NO

The ANC strongly recommends that you do not vote for the three candidates below who are endorsed by our opposition.

ANC Opposes

🆇 Matt Benjamin
🆇 Rob Kaplan
🆇 Jenny Robins

NO on Matt Benjamin who used his clout on Council to try to torpedo the ANC’s ballot campaign in 2024. A pilot himself, he is seen as a champion by the pilot community. He strongly advocates for the city to keep the airport, drop the lawsuit, and resume taking FAA funds that bind the city to ever-extending timelines of FAA control over Boulder’s land. He has also lied to the public about the airport and the ANC. On one memorable occasion, he stated that our campaign wanted to put low-income residents on an unremediated contaminated site (we emphatically do not). He has also repeated such whoppers as the airport is critical for wildfire fighting (it is not) and that a federal judge took the decision over the airport out of Boulder’s hands (she did not). In answering our questionnaire, Matt states that the Boulder airport cannot grow “bigger”. While it is true, as he describes, that runways can’t be extended due to geographic constraints, Matt fails to acknowledge that the airport could still double or triple the number of flights using our runways by modernizing and adding airport facilities and developing more hangars on the existing 174-acre airport site. Matt expressly says the city needs to “enhance the existing infrastructure and maintain the airport at a higher standard.” Hard NO on Matt.

NO on Rob Kaplan who stated on our questionnaire that he would choose to keep the airport, and who has publicly supported resuming taking FAA funds which would bind the city to continue operating the airport. He is endorsed by our opposition and has also repeated some of their false claims about the airport, though we can cut him some slack here since we don’t expect him to be as informed as incumbents. Adding it all up, this is enough for us to recommend a NO, though we appreciate his nod to a public vote and his promise to “listen and represent the collective voice of the residents of Boulder” if the city establishes local control over the site, as well as his comments about cleaner and quieter tech at the airport. 

NO on Jenny Robins. Jenny is the only candidate who did not answer our questionnaire. She is described by our opposition as “a consistent supporter of the airport” who has stated publicly that she would restore FAA grant funding, which would bind the city to continue operating the airport. We also have memories of Jenny praising the airport at the candidate forum in 2023. It’s a NO on Jenny for us. 

THANK YOU AND MORE INFORMATION

All candidates except Jenny Robins answered our questionnaire. You can read their full answers here. We’d like to thank each candidate who took the time to provide valuable information to the voters on where they stand on this important issue for Boulder’s present and future.