Bloopers And Bleaters

When The Going Gets Weird, Well, You Know What Happens Next. A Few Highlights From The 2023 Campaign Trail

By Cara DeGette

GPHN Editor

This was a new one.

When the March issue of the Greater Park Hill News hit the streets, Bill Rigler, the Boulder-based spokesman for Glendale-based Westside Investment Partners, which wants to develop the protected Park Hill Golf Course in Denver, sent a demand for an immediate correction in the newspaper.

In the message, subject line “Urgent correction to your headline and article,” Rigler wrote the following:

“Your March 2 [news story] includes a material error in the subhead and very first sentence. You erroneously state that Wellington Webb has joined the plaintiffs in the nearly-identical lawsuit for the former Park Hill Golf Course that a judge dismissed a year ago. I have [attached] a copy of the most recent lawsuit, and you will be able to see that Webb is not a party. Please make that correction online and in print immediately.”

Uh oh. Only one problem: We didn’t make a mistake. We reported — correctly — that the former mayor of Denver is a plaintiff in the newly-filed lawsuit against Denver and Westside. Which he is, indeed.

Webb has joined numerous other high-profile plaintiffs alleging that Denver engaged in illegal actions related to Westside’s plan to develop the golf course property. The former golf course is protected with a city-owned conservation easement, which taxpayers shelled out $2 million for in 1997.

So why would a guy in Boulder care so much about what is reported in the Greater Park Hill News? Rigler happens to also be the campaign manager for Westside’s “Yes on 2 O” campaign, to convince Denver voters to extinguish the conservation easement that forbids development of the golf course.

Westside is paying Rigler handsomely — more than $752,000 so far, according to campaign filings — to run the developer’s “Yes on 2 O” campaign via Rigler’s company, Greenlight Strategy.

It is unclear what exactly prompted Rigler to demand a correction to a factual story. We forwarded Mr. Rigler a copy of the amended complaint — which identified Webb as a plaintiff. Rigler merely acknowledged the correction to his correction with this response: “Thank you for the quick response.”

Sometimes, election season doesn’t bring out the best in people.

Caught red-handed

In related 2 O news, let’s talk about yard sign bandits. Many experienced politicos will advise anyone even thinking of stealing opponents’ yard signs to either:

1. Don’t do it. Stealing signs is illegal.

2. If you can’t help yourself, then at least do your commando raids well after midnight, when people are likely to be sleeping. If you yank out yard signs from private property in broad daylight, you are likely to be caught red-handed. And confronted. And maybe even videotaped.

Consider exhibit No. 1: A “Yes On 2 O” person was videotaped in March yanking a “NO on 2 O” yard sign from private property near the Park Hill Golf Course.

When she was confronted by the homeowner, with his videotape rolling, the sticky-fingered culprit not-very-convincingly informed him she thought she had removed the sign from “private … I mean public” property. The encounter can be viewed at this YouTube link:

youtube.com/watch?v=b2oPn7rK8jo.

Where Is Mayor Hancock?

When it comes to 2 O and the Park Hill Golf Course, the no-development side has also had at least one troublemaker this campaign season.

Rev. Terri Hobert of St. Thomas Episcopal Church told the news site Denverite that “Yes on 2 O” yard signs had been stolen from church property at 22nd and Dexter. Hobart, who has emerged as a vocal supporter of Westside’s development plans,  also reported that she was cursed at for five minutes by someone outside the church.

Faith leaders from other local congregations jumped in to defend the priest’s right to take a public stance on political issues, in a letter to the editor that appears on page 15.

One final observation on 2 O — at least for now: Former Mayor Webb has been front and center in opposition to 2 O, including writing letters, giving interviews and holding public events.  In contrast, outgoing Mayor Michael B. Hancock, whose administration pushed tirelessly for a year to get the pro-development issue on the ballot,  has noticeably stayed on the sidelines.

Also surprisingly low-key during the campaign: Westside’s Kenneth Ho, who has headed efforts to develop the golf course for several years. (Though, as noted earlier, Ho’s company is exceedingly generous when it comes to campaign cash.)

Correcting the record

Occasionally we do make mistakes in the newspaper. When a legitimate correction is warranted, we are happy to correct the record.

In our February issue, we were mortified when we realized we gave Tim Hoffman, a candidate running for an at-large council seat, a new name. We mistakenly identified him as “Will Hoffman.” We regret the error.

In last month’s issue, we made another mistake. In the list of candidate campaign contributions, we included an incorrect figure in the total amount that Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca has raised for her District 9 reelection race. That figure included contributions she also received during her 2019 campaign. The correct amount for CdeBaca’s race for this year, as of Jan. 31, is $150,152 from 741 donors.

As of March 13,  CdeBaca has raised $175,144 from 1,192 contributors. She is being challenged by Darrell Watson, who has $237,760 from 992 contributors as of March 13. The third candidate in that race, Kwon Atlas, has raised $57,785 from 268 contributors.

Tune in next month for results, updates, and other developments in the 2023 Denver municipal election.