Manitou Springs Mayor John Graham appeared headed Tuesday to reelection over Mayor Pro-Tem and District 2 City Council Member Nancy Fortuin and Tyler Graefe, a write-in candidate for mayor two years ago.

In early returns at 7:40 p.m., Graham led Fortuin by more than 350 votes, or about 25 percentage points, and he was more than 800 votes ahead of Graefe.

Graham has been Manitou’s mayor since January 2020 and was elected in 2021 to a two-year term over Alan Delwiche by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. Graham has worked in both the newspaper and software development industries.

He campaigned on leaving the city in better shape than when he became mayor and balancing the needs of visitors with those of residents — with resident quality of life at the forefront.

Graham said Tuesday night he is “looking forward to two more years and the opportunity to get things done and our projects further along,” including several capital projects underway in Manitou Springs.

He noted that this year’s election is the first in three cycles where there was more than one candidate vying for city seats, except for the 2021 election that featured a contest for one seat. Ten candidates are seeking three council seats in this year’s election.

“Our elections (in recent years) have been more like a cricket match than rugby,” he said. “We really didn’t have much campaigning because there wasn’t much competition.”

Fortuin campaigned on establishing sustainable revenue sources for infrastructure, fire prevention and sustainability initiatives as well as completing major projects such as the Carnegie Library renovation and fire department training facility.

Incumbent council members Judith Chandler, John Shada and Julie Wolfe all were headed in early returns for reelection to 2-year terms, with all three more than 100 votes ahead of the fourth-place candidate, Charlotte “Susan” Presti, who spent more than 20 years as an executive with Colorado Springs Utilities. None of the other six candidates had more than 377 votes.

In her answers to The Gazette’s voter guide questionnaire, Chandler said her priorities were health, safety, welfare and quality of life for all residents and completing capital projects already underway.

Shada said in his questionnaire he supports building more satellite visitor parking areas with electric trams transporting visitors into the downtown area, cog railway and popular Manitou Incline. He also said he supports redirecting tax revenue from the city’s two retail marijuana dispensaries to water, wastewater and storm water systems.

Wolfe said in her questionnaire that her priority is quality of life without tax increases and she doesn’t want Manitou Springs to become more like Breckenridge.

John Graham

Courtesy of Stacy Carosa