What’s at stake in the city council races

The city council elections could have ramifications for the city’s housing, policing, and carbon neutrality goals. But competing visions for the city didn’t stop candidates from keeping in touch.

The primaries Tuesday narrowed the field of candidates for Laramie City Council, but some of those candidates are looking ahead to a competitive general election.

Who wins will determine the make-up of the council for the next two years. The make-up of the council will determine how the city addresses housing, policing, climate change and other pressing hot-button issues at a critical time in the city’s history.

Four of the council’s nine seats are up for election this year. Two of those seats are in Ward 3. Because only two candidates filed to run for those seats — Erin O’Doherty and Joe Shumway — their victories in November are highly likely.

The open seat in Ward 1 and the open seat in Ward 2 are more hotly contested. In each race, the two top candidates in the primary have advanced to the general.

In Ward 2, Brett Glass and Brandon Newman defeated three other candidates. While Glass had significantly more votes (391) than Newman (296), Newman had just 29 more votes than his next opponent, Ray Kasckow. It’s not clear how Kasckow’s or the other candidates’ voters will vote in the general election, but there are enough votes on the table for either Glass or Newman to win the day.

In Ward 1, Micah Richardson and Allison Cunningham unseated the incumbent, Councilor Fred Schmechel. Richardson and Cunningham will compete in the general election; the winner will take the seat currently occupied by Schmechel. Richardson crushed the competition, earning more votes (1,164) than Cunningham (592) and Schmechel (445) combined. Shortly after his Tuesday loss, Schmechel endorsed Richardson.

Voters will decide who joins the council when they head to the polls in November.

A council without parties

City council races are technically non-partisan. That means candidates do not file to run as Democrats or Republicans.

Party affiliation doesn’t tell a voter everything there is to know about a candidate, but it can function as a convenient shorthand. If someone has a D next to their name, they’re more likely to support government interventions for safety net programs. But if someone has an R next to their name, they’re less likely to support government interventions of that sort.

It’s not a perfect heuristic, but it’s often a place to start. And a non-partisan race eliminates even that starting place.

That could be good: it could force voters to learn the ins and outs of every candidate and make a more informed decision. It could be bad: it could discourage voters from taking part in the electoral system by making informed engagement too time-consuming or exhausting.

The Laramie Reporter is not here to argue for or against the existence of non-partisan races.

But the point is this: it can be challenging to understand the stakes of a city council race at a glance. So below you’ll find a visual representation of what’s at stake in the city council races this year. Obviously, city councilors cannot vote along “party lines.” But they can vote along somewhat predictable lines. There is no Democrat caucus on the city council, but there is something you could call a pro-rental regulations block.

We can look at the vote breakdown for a previous resolution or ordinance to get an idea of what the vote breakdown might look like for a similar resolution or ordinance in the future.

Rental regulations and housing reform

The council has advanced several affordable housing measures in the past two years, rewriting the city code to allow for denser housing, encourage accessory dwelling units, and protect the city’s majority-renter population from unsafe or unsanitary housing.

For example, the final vote to adopt the City Rental Housing Code (i.e. rental regulations) looked like this:

Four of those council seats are up for election. But Councilor Erin O’Doherty, a supporter of the regulations, will almost certainly keep her seat. And Councilor Bryan Shuster will almost certainly be replaced by another rental regulations opponent: Joe Shumway.

In Ward 1, Richardson faces Cunningham. In Ward 2, Glass faces Newman. Based on each candidate’s answers to an earlier Laramie Reporter questionnaire, we know that Richardson is the only clear supporter of rental regulations and that Glass is strongly opposed. When asked if he supported the rental regulations, Newman said “yes and no,” and did not offer a strong opinion one way or the other. Cunningham gave even less of an answer.

Taking all of this into account, we can generate the two most extreme possibilities. The best case scenario for supporters of rental regulations:

And the worst case scenario for supporters of rental regulations:

Some necessary caveats: The vote breakdown was different when it came to single-family and multi-family zoning issues. Each issue is going to inspire its own unique division between councilors based on those councilors’ specific interests, beliefs and constituencies. But the graphics above are meant to provide a general idea of the council’s attitude toward rental regulations next year. Related issues are likely to fall along similar, though not identical, lines.

Conclusions: As we can see, in either scenario, the City Rental Housing Code will likely enjoy majority support from the councilors. That means it’s unlikely to be reversed by an action of council in the next two years. Other outside factors could intervene — the courts, for example, or changes to state law — but at least five of the council’s nine members will have voted for or voiced support for the city’s rental regulations.

Civilian oversight boards and policing reform

Another major issue that has dominated council time is that of police reform. Albany County has been actively engaged in conversations about law enforcement transparency and the role of police since a 2018 incident in which a then-sheriff’s deputy shot and killed an unarmed man.

Those conversations exploded into the streets amid the George Floyd protests and marches of 2020, and the city council promised to consider action. What followed was a lengthy process that eventually saw a community-police-relations committee recommending changes to local law enforcement during a council meeting earlier this year.

Among those recommendations: further consideration of a civilian oversight board. It was by far the most controversial recommendation made that night, and the issue received this vote from the city council:

The measure failed on the narrowest of margins. Would a similar measure fail under a different council make-up? Again, four of those council seats are up for election. One of those seats will almost certainly be retained by Councilor Erin O’Doherty, who voted to further consider the oversight board. Another of the four seats will almost certainly be handed off from the outgoing Bryan Shuster to candidate Joe Shumway. Shuster voted against the oversight board; Shumway is also opposed to the creation of a civilian oversight board.

In Ward 1, Richardson faces Cunningham. In Ward 2, Glass faces Newman.

In earlier Laramie Reporter questionnaires, Richardson voiced unambiguous support for the idea of a civilian oversight board. Cunningham is unambiguously opposed. Glass supports the idea of a civilian oversight board, but said it might be “toothless” given some legal constraints. And Newman did not give a clear statement of support or opposition, saying only that he would consider a future proposal.

Taking their answers into account, we can generate the two most extreme possibilities.

The best case scenario for those who want a civilian oversight board:

And the worst case scenario for those who want a civilian oversight board:

Some necessary caveats: This breakdown of votes is specific to the oversight board proposal. Other recommendations made by the same community-police-relations committee at the same council meeting drew out different voting blocks. Some measures — like considering changes to the Laramie Police Department’s mental health response model — were far less controversial and far more popular. Each vote is unique. But, again, the graphics above are meant to provide a general idea of the council’s attitude toward civilian oversight boards. Related issues are likely to fall along similar, though not identical, lines.

Conclusions: As we can see, the best case scenario for those who want to see a civilian oversight board in Laramie is a narrow majority in favor of their cause. But Laramie voters have to put both Micah Richardson and Brett Glass on the council to achieve that. If either loses their respective race, the majority shifts the other way. In the worst case scenario for those who want a civilian oversight board, their opposition has a healthy majority.

Taken together, the examples above show that housing reform has a safer majority than an issue like civilian oversight, which more evenly divides councilors (and perhaps the public). Those pushing for housing reform are likely to maintain their majority in council even in the worst case scenario. Those pushing for civilian oversight are unlikely to gain the majority, but could just pull it off if everything goes right in the general election.

The faction behind housing reform and the faction behind police oversight overlap, but are not the same. That is one consequence of the council being non-partisan; there is no party to pull both interests together under one platform.

In Ward 1, the choice is clear for a voter who wants both housing reform and civilian oversight. They would cast a ballot for Richardson, the clear champion of both causes. But a Ward 2 voter with the same interests will have to choose which of those causes to prioritize. One of their options is officially neutral on both questions. The other is anti-rental regulations but pro-civilian oversight.

In a non-partisan race, each candidate can have an individualized set of policy positions. The flipside is that they must rely on old-fashioned campaigning to get their message across and sell voters on their specific position.

But old-fashioned local campaigning might be a welcome break from the ever-meaner political climate of the state and nation.

Group chats and democracy

In Ward 2, Micah Richardson received nearly twice as many votes as Allison Cunningham. Despite her lead, Richardson said she plans to actively campaign for the seat, as she did throughout the primary, meeting and talking with a wide range of constituents.

“Every time I speak to someone new, I learn a little bit more and I learn the nuances of the situation,” she said. “Not everything is so black and white. So I’m excited to continue learning and thinking about ways to help support and improve the city where we can.”

Cunningham — who will run against Richardson in the general — didn’t expect to make it this far.

“I was prepared to lose,” she said via email. “I was surprised that I defeated Fred Schmechel, an incumbent city councilor. Since I won the primary, I am able to order and put out my campaign materials. Laramie will see my political yard signs in Ward 1 soon!”

Richardson and Cunningham have radically different visions for the future of Laramie. As noted above, Richardson supports the City Rental Housing Code and the idea of a civilian oversight board. She also believes that the city has a role to play in encouraging economic development and combating climate change.

By contrast, Cunningham took no strong position on the rental regulations, said Laramie should “absolutely not” have a civilian oversight board, and rejected the idea that the city has any role to play in economic development or climate change mitigation.

“I have different ideas and plans,” Cunningham said. “Voters should have a choice who they want to elect for city council.”

Despite their divisions, this cycle’s candidates have a unique relationship. Richardson, Cunningham and Schmechel kept in touch through election day and the day after with a friendly group chat.

“Allison, Micah and I had a lovely text thread going all day yesterday, and it was nothing but kindness, support, civility and focused on serving the amazing citizens of Laramie,” Schmechel wrote in a Facebook post following his Tuesday loss. “Democracy still works at the local level!”

Richardson said they offered each other encouragement, good luck and, eventually, congratulations. She said that degree of civility was nowhere to be seen at the state level, where vicious fights took place for the U.S. House seat and the Secretary of State’s office.

“I know it sounds so minor, but I’m concerned that is disappearing a bit in our political landscape,” Richardson said. “I hope that we can think about how to work together as a community and have some real, civil discussions while also voicing our opinions and standing for what we believe in.”