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Gordon ends her campaign for Glenwood City Council

Sarah Gordon

issues & answers City council candidates forum

5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Glenwood Springs City Hall and broadcast live at KMTS.com

Featuring candidates for the At Large, Ward 5 and Ward 2 seats.

One of the four candidates on the Glenwood Springs city ballot for the Ward 5 City Council seat in the April 4 election, Sarah Gordon, is dropping out of the race. However, it’s too late to remove her name from the ballot at this point, as ballots are printed and set to be mailed to voters March 13.

Gordon on Monday cited family reasons for her decision to end her campaign in an interview with the Post Independent. With a baby and a toddler at home, she said she thought it would be best to urge people to vote for a candidate who would have the time to serve.

“When I sign up to do something I want to do it full bore and give 100 percent of my effort,” Gordon said. “I love being a mom, and right now we’re in a phase of our life where it takes two adults to put two kids to bed.



“I would love to revisit a possible run for City Council someday, but right now I don’t think I can give my full to it,” said Gordon, who informed the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association that she will not be participating in the Tuesday evening candidates forum.

Her decision leaves three candidates in the race for the Ward 5 seat, including Amber Wissing, who is a Glenwood Springs native and dental office business manager; former council member and retired law office manager Don Gillespie; and Jonathan Godes, who is the director of the Roaring Fork Valley’s Early Childhood Network.



Gordon said she didn’t want to publicly endorse one of the other candidates, though she indicated she does have a preference and encouraged her supporters and others in her Ward 5 (south Glenwood) neighborhood to contact her if they’re interested in her thoughts.

“If there wasn’t a good selection of candidates, I wouldn’t have dropped out,” she said.

But, as someone who grew up in Glenwood Springs then moved away for several years while working in local government and as an occupational health and safety consultant in different places around the country, Gordon offered that she thinks it’s important to have someone on City Council who has a broader perspective.

“Something I felt made me a really good candidate is that I have lived in and been a part of other communities, and I thought I could bring that knowledge back to my hometown,” she said. “If you spend your whole life in one place, you can tend to become a little bit sheltered and not understand some of the ideas that make other communities really great.”

City Council could also benefit from better generational and gender diversity, said Gordon, who is 39. She added that she hopes her decision doesn’t discourage other women from running for public office.

Because her name will still appear on the ballot, Gordon urged voters to learn about the other candidates in the race and make an informed decision when ballots go out March 13.

Ward seats are decided by voters in that particular neighborhood only, while at-large seats are decided by voters citywide. Four candidates are vying for the open at-large seat that will also be decided in the April 4 balloting. They include Rick Davis, Jonathan Gorst, Shelley Kaup and Charlie Willman.

Only one candidate, Rick Voorhees, is running for the Ward 2 (West Glenwood) seat.


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