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Aspen's city council will see a bit of a shakeup, while keeping incumbent Mayor Torre in office for a third and final term.
Mayoral Results
Torre faced a challenge from local real estate broker Tracy Sutton. Torre received 1,675 votes to Sutton’s 1,114.
Much of his campaign was focused on Aspen as a community, and not selling out the community in favor of outside interests.
At Kenichi in Aspen on Election Night, Torre said he’s excited to continue working for his community, and to really examine what this race’s results mean.
“I think there’s a lot of different changes in voting patterns and priorities and values of this community,” he said “And what I will say is that I hear the other side's voice. You know, that’s one thing I bring to the table, is that I always listen to the other side’s voice. And look, my opponent had a lot of support in this, and I listen to that.”
For her part, Sutton said even though she was disappointed in the results, she’s looking forward to working with Torre to work for the city.
“But you know, I’m really proud of my accomplishments, I think I made a strong showing, and I’m not done yet,” she said. “I’m not out of the game, I’m definitely going to stay involved.”
City Council Results
In the city council race, volunteer firefighter Sam Rose was the top vote-getter, achieving 2,323 votes. Rose will be the youngest member to serve on Aspen’s city council at age 29, and serves as a volunteer firefighter.
At Aspen City Hall on Election Night, Rose said he was “honored beyond belief” to be the top vote-getter, and attributes his success to the hard work he put in on the campaign trail.
“You know, it’s the Entrance to Aspen, it’s housing, it’s childcare, it’s fixing the permitting process, everything that will contribute to the quality of life of its citizens,” he said. “I can’t wait to get started.”
Entrepreneur and local real estate broker Bill Guth won the second seat on city council with 1,499 votes.
He expressed his thanks to Erica Robbie, his campaign manager and Dwayne Romero, his campaign treasurer, as well as his wife and kids and the community who supported him.
“I’m very excited for the future of Aspen,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect. With no data, it’s hard to know what to expect. But I’m super humble, and grateful to the whole community.”
Both Rose and Guth beat incumbent Skippy Mesirow, who tallied 1,286 votes.
Mesirow says he ran exactly the campaign he wanted to run.
“From day one, I said, ‘first goal is to move the conversation, second goal is to win,’” he said. “Elections are not, should not, be about a candidate, they’re about the community.”
At around 3:30 p.m, Aspen City Clerk Nicole Henning said fewer people came to vote in person than usual—at that time, around 100 people had shown up to vote in-person and about 400 ballots had been put in dropboxes.
“Normally we see a lot more in-person voters,” she said. “But as far as numbers go, we’re on par with a typical election.”
Henning also affirmed the integrity of the election, saying that the city had “more than enough people to process” ballots.
“We’ve also got our representative here from Dominion [Voting Systems], he’s here,” she said. “And then our election commission, so we’ve got all three of those people overseeing the election besides myself.”
Reporters Eleanor Bennett and Kaya Williams also contributed to this story.
