Denver Voters Ensure Election of Black Mayor

Results of Tuesday’s municipal election ensured that voters in Denver will elect their first black mayor in a June 18 runoff contest.

District Atty. Norm Early was the top vote-getter, but he fell short of a majority needed to succeed Mayor Federico Pena.

Early, 45, will face the second-place finisher, City Auditor Wellington Webb, 50, who also is black, in the runoff.

With all precincts reporting Tuesday night, Early had 50,004 votes, or 41%, to Webb’s 36,674, or 30%. Attorney Don Bain, who is white, had 32,812 votes, or 27%.

At a time of racial tension in many U.S. cities, racial issues played little part in Denver politics. The city’s economic growth overshadowed most other problems.

Denver voters also defeated a ballot measure to repeal an ordinance banning discrimination against homosexuals. With all precincts reporting, 54,705 voters, or 55%, opposed repealing the ordinance, while 45,303, or 45%, voted to repeal.

Gov. Roy Romer, Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) and Pena, who decided not to seek a third term, opposed the ballot measure.

In Philadelphia, meanwhile, former Mayor Frank L. Rizzo barely led a Republican primary Tuesday in his third comeback attempt. Former District Atty. Edward Rendell won the Democratic nomination as voters looked for someone to bring Philadelphia back from the brink of bankruptcy.

With 99% of the precincts reporting in the GOP race, Rizzo had 46,786 votes, or 36%, while former District Atty. Ron Castille had 45,666 votes, or 35%. Samuel Katz, a political unknown in his first election, had 36,902 votes, or 29%.

Rizzo said he anticipates a recount, but “we’re going to win it, that’s for sure.”

“It’s too close to call,” Castille said. He said he would decide later how to proceed.

In the four-way Democratic primary, Rendell had 143,479 votes, or 49%. Former City Council member Lucien Blackwell was second with 78,807 votes, or 27%.

Rizzo contended his 30 years as a police officer and police commissioner plus two terms as a Democratic mayor gave him an advantage. He was making his second run as a Republican in the nation’s fifth-largest city, where the GOP has been shut out of the mayor’s office for more than four decades.

The GOP winner will face Rendell in the Nov. 5 election. Mayor W. Wilson Goode, a Democrat, is prevented by law from seeking a third consecutive term.