Will He or Won’t He?

There has been speculation on whether Steve Bach runs for reelection.  From this point of view, the answer is no.  There are several reasons.

First, late last year, Bach suspended his mayoral forums.  Any candidate running for reelection would not only continue these events, he would increase the number and frequency.  What better way to appear before potential voters than by going from neighborhood to neighborhood with senior city managers in tow to answer questions, make crowd pleasing decisions and take action to solve neighborhood issues.  There was some speculation recently when Bach announced a new series of forums following the November 4^th election to promote his proposal to meet storm water and other capital improvement needs.  After attending the “forum” near my home, I could only shake my head.  The forum more closely resembled a science fair as my wife put it.  Various department representatives were standing next to tables around the perimeter of the room with poster boards on the tables.  A few of the tables had information hand-outs for the curious, and city representatives were available to answer questions.  Bach attended, but all of his conversations were one-on-one with citizens and for a television camera.  Not only was there no speech, there were no chairs set up for anyone to take a seat.  Not the actions of a candidate looking to impress and convince voters he deserves another term.

Secondly, several weeks ago I attended the annual meeting of Downtown Colorado Springs, when they invite the mayor in for the annual address.  Three years ago Bach delivered a speech to this organization that he had clearly written himself, and it was full of new projects and goals to be met.  This year Bach spoke, but what he had to say, and how long it took him to say it spoke volumes.  The entire speech was backward looking; all content was focused on past accomplishments.  Not a word on new goals or even on existing goals not yet completed.  The speech sounded like one written by a staff member in the public relations department; Bach read it with little audience eye contact.  Further, it took less than five minutes to deliver.  Anyone running for reelection would write his own speech, mention a few past accomplishments and then pivot to goals unmet and new goals to be attained.  

Finally, when one reviews the recent campaign contribution disclosure reports filed by John Suthers and Amy Lathen and compares them to those filed by Bach in 2011, there is some overlap.  Not exact to be sure, but enough that one must question whether the contributors to Bach’s 2011 campaign will be there in 2015 if he calls on them. 

Is Bach running? Not according to his actions.

11.24.2014