By Chase Woodruff, Colorado Newsline

 

Backed by conservative dark money groups, Republicans in Colorado’s third-largest city are looking to expand their council majority in the 2025 off-year election.

 

Though Aurora’s elections are officially nonpartisan, slates of Republican-affiliated candidates led by Mayor Mike Coffman, a former GOP member of Congress, have solidified their grip on city politics in recent years — even as the sprawling, diverse suburb east of Denver became an unlikely target of national attention over false and exaggerated claims of immigrant gang activity.

 

Candidates up for reelection in 2025 include at-large Council member Danielle Jurinsky, whose tales of a “complete gang takeover” of Aurora were instrumental in drawing President Donald Trump to the city for a high-profile 2024 campaign stop. Trump, Jurinsky and other far-right figures painted a sensational picture of the influence of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in Aurora, where police have described the gang’s presence as “isolated” and relatively small, and crime rates, consistent with national trends, have trended downward since 2022.

 

Jurinsky and four other conservative Aurora City Council candidates are backed by Building Aurora’s Future, an independent expenditure committee that has raised a combined $295,000 this year from Advance Colorado and Our Community Our Future, two dark money groups that do not disclose their donors.

 

Advance Colorado is a prominent conservative group that funds anti-tax ballot measures and other Republican-aligned causes in Colorado politics.

 

Our Community Our Future is a nonprofit incorporated in Colorado in 2023. In tax filings, it lists former Aurora City Council member Charlie Richardson as its lone board member. Its bare-bones website consists of a single sentence describing the group as seeking to “advance the mission of community building,” and a stock photo titled “Group of people support unity arm around together.”

 

No Democratic-aligned groups have reported any expenditures on behalf of Aurora municipal candidates this year.

 

Ballots began going out by mail Oct. 10 to all active registered voters in Colorado. The state’s coordinated 2025 election features two statewide ballot measures, Proposition LL and Proposition MM. Depending on where they live, voters will also be asked to weigh in on such items as local ballot issues, city council races, and school board races.

 

Election Day is Nov. 4. Eligible Coloradans can register to vote or update their registration at GoVoteColorado.com. Any eligible voter who registers to vote before Oct. 27 will receive a ballot in the mail. After Oct. 27, eligible voters can still register and vote in-person at a polling location until 7 p.m. on Election Day.

 

Voters who receive a mail ballot can return it through the mail, deposit it in a secure ballot drop box, or drop it off at an in-person polling location. County clerks in Colorado’s 64 counties oversee elections in their jurisdictions, and information about ballot drop box and in-person service locations is available at local county clerks’ websites.

 

Overall, 12 candidates are vying for five City Council seats in Aurora’s 2025 municipal election. Voters will also have the final say on five citywide measures referred to the ballot by council members.

 

At-Large seats

 

Five candidates are running for two at-large seats, including the two incumbents: Jurinsky, who was elected to her seat in 2021, and Amsalu Kassaw, a Republican-affiliated member appointed to fill a vacancy on council by its conservative majority last year.

 

Kassaw is an Ethiopian immigrant who works for The GEO Group, a private prison company that operates the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Aurora. Jurinsky and Kassaw are part of the slate backed by Building Aurora’s Future, and both lead the field of at-large candidates in individual fundraising, having received $250,740 and $101,908 in contributions, respectively, as of Sept. 30.

 

Two Democratic-affiliated candidates, Rob Andrews and Alli Jackson, have received endorsements from a long list of progressive groups and Democratic elected officials. Andrews, president of the nonprofit job-training service CommunityWorks, has raised $45,262, according to campaign finance disclosures. Jackson, a social worker, has raised $15,114.

 

An independent candidate, Community College of Aurora instructor Watson Gomes, has raised $610.

 

Ward I

Three candidates are running for the Ward I seat being vacated by progressive Council member Crystal Murillo. Ward I is centered on the East Colfax corridor in northwest Aurora.

 

Murillo, who was elected in 2021 with 56% of the vote, has endorsed Gianina Horton, a former executive director of the Denver Justice Project. Horton also has the backing of the Colorado

Working Families Party, Colorado People’s Action, Conservation Colorado and other progressive groups and elected officials.

 

Stephen Elkins, a product development manager for a data center business, is the conservative slate’s pick for the Ward I seat and has received support from Building Aurora’s Future.

Reid Hettich, a pastor at Mosaic Church of Aurora, is also running for the Ward I seat.

 

Ward II

Incumbent Council member Steve Sundberg, a Republican, is running for reelection in Ward II, which encompasses Aurora’s sprawling northeastern quarter, extending as far as Denver International Airport to the north and the town of Bennett to the east.

 

Sundberg is part of the conservative slate supported by Building Aurora’s Future. He won his seat with a 48% plurality of the vote in a four-way race in 2021.

 

His lone challenger in 2025, Amy Wiles, is backed by Democratic elected officials and progressive groups including the Colorado AFL-CIO, the Colorado Working Families Party and Moms Demand Action.

 

Ward III

Incumbent Council member Ruben Medina, a Democrat, is running for reelection in Ward III, which includes much of central Aurora along its border with Denver to the west. Medina narrowly won election to his seat with 51% of the vote in a head-to-head race in 2021.

 

His 2025 challenger is Marsha Berzins, a conservative who previously held the Ward III seat for 12 years before she was term-limited in 2021. Berzins is part of the conservative slate and has received support from Building Aurora’s Future.

 

Ballot questions

Alongside the City Council races, Aurora voters will vote on five citywide ballot questions, referred by council members earlier this year.

 

Ballot Question 3B would amend the city charter to use gender-neutral language.

 

Ballot Question 3C would amend the city’s process for filling council vacancies, requiring special elections to fill any vacancy that occurs one year or more before the next election for the seat in question.

 

Ballot Question 3D proposes to eliminate the requirement that Aurora’s city manager must reside within city limits.

 

Ballot Question 3E would remove the city charter’s prohibition on elected city officials simultaneously holding another elected office.

 

 

Ballot Question 3F would amend the charter to allow at-large council seats and ward council seats to count as separate offices for the purposes of term limits.

 

Some Aurora residents within a designated area along East Colfax Avenue will vote on two ballot measures to create and fund a new downtown development authority, a taxing district to foster economic development along the corridor.

 

Election 2025

Coloradans are voting on two statewide ballot measures and a variety of local issues in the off-year election. Click here for more of Newsline’s coverage.

 

 

Chase Woodruff is a senior reporter for Colorado Newsline. His beats include the environment, money in politics, and the economy. This article is republished from Colorado Newsline under a Creative Commons license. Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

 

 

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