“You can be a totally unknown candidate in an early stage of the race and go on to win the election,” said Tony Robinson, Chair of the political science department. Robinson, a Denver City Council candidate in 2003, witnessed firsthand how Hickenlooper pulled it off. “Ari Zavaras and Don Mares, those were clearly the two titans in the mayoral race. And Hickenlooper came out of nowhere and had a strategy to win the election.”
How John Hickenlooper defied the odds in 2003, and how he might do it again in 2020
The Denver Post, Mar 10