DENVER — Campaign flyers that promote a white candidate with racially charged language. A TV ad that includes video of mostly Latino or Black people who are homeless, fighting or engaged in crime. News stories that focus on the alleged mistreatment of legislative staff by a candidate who’s a Black woman — but don’t scrutinize other candidates’ reputations as bosses.
All of these have fueled recent flashpoints over race and gender as a historically large, and notably diverse, field of candidates campaign to be Denver’s next mayor in the April 4 election.
Disputes over campaign tactics have put two white candidates — Mike Johnston and Chris Hansen — on the defensive. And a group of 25 Black elected officials and community leaders endorsed a statement March 8 that condemned media portrayals of Black candidates, messages promoted by some campaigns, and the exclusion of lower-funded candidates from debates and forums as organizers have sought to narrow the field of 17 ballot-qualified contenders.
