2025 City Council Candidate Endorsements
PLAN-Boulder County is limiting our endorsements of 2025 City Council candidates to three, even though there are four seats in the running. After the Collaborative Forum in which PLAN-Boulder, Open Boulder and Better Boulder jointly sponsored a candidate forum, the board also evaluated candidates’ responses to the PLAN-Boulder questionnaire and most significantly, assessed our experiences with the four incumbents over their past term. Based on these deliberations, we determined that our three endorsed candidates- Mark Wallach, Jenny Robins, and Rob Kaplan – are the ones that best support PLAN-Boulder’s values and policies.
Mark Wallach
PLAN-Boulder County endorses the re-election of Mark Wallach to the Boulder City Council.
Wallach states in his campaign literature and in his public appearances that he is not driven by ideology, but only by results. His test for every policy is will it work? Can we afford it? And will it make life better in Boulder? Our observation of Mark’s work over his past council terms is that he does exactly that, and more importantly, his view of making life better in Boulder is better for everyone, not just his ideologically simpatico constituents. He publicizes his concerns and questions with staff work on council projects and policies by raising them on the council Hotline, so Boulder citizens have some idea about his thoughts on an issue. His top issues of affordable middle-income housing, fiscal responsibility, wildfire resilience, and public safety and infrastructure match up well with issues of concern to PLAN-Boulder. Unfortunately for Mark and for us, he is infrequently able to find support among his council colleagues, so we need to elect new council members who can act with Mark to better represent the broader community.
Jenny Robins
PLAN-Boulder County endorses the election of Jenny Robins to the Boulder City Council.
We think our city council needs real leadership and Jenny has demonstrated her abilities by rising to the highest level of leadership in her civic roles. She chairs the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, co-chairs the Boulder Chamber of Commerce’s Community Affairs Council, and is a mentor in the University of Colorado’s Boulder-CU Leadership Program. Robin’s campaign focuses on the need to provide good governance to the entire community, which is at the heart of PLAN-Boulder’s mission. She advocates for our local government listening to its citizens closely, communicating clearly, following through for good results and very importantly, recognizing that good ideas can come from anywhere. She is promoting taking care of basics, such as reliable infrastructure, community safety, wildfire preparedness, and supporting local innovation while protecting the character and identity that make Boulder unique, with the update of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan as the basis of smart, long-term choices about our future. PLAN-Boulder is particularly supportive of Robins concern regarding the city’s financial situation and the potential of forming a citizen advisory group to help determine the priorities of the citizens.
Rob Kaplan
PLAN-Boulder County endorses the election of Rob Kaplan to the Boulder City Council.
Kaplan’s 18 years of frontline experience as a former fire captain will give the council real leadership in one of Boulder’s most critical issues: wildfire mitigation. From his role as a fire captain and county-wide mutual aid representative, Kaplan understands the essential role that safety plays in building a thriving community. He is committed to improving the vitality of our downtown through better public safety, improved infrastructure and better support of small businesses. Kaplan identifies affordable middle-income housing as our critical housing need that is responsible for hollowing out of our workforce and increasing inequality of housing opportunities. This increases the number of in-commuters who live elsewhere and work in Boulder, with the related impacts to air quality, traffic congestion, and deterioration of our sense of community. Kaplan supports the Core Arterial Network (CAN) as an important structure of our transportation system, and believes we must implement it in a way that balances our community’s multiple needs. PLAN-Boulder feels that Kaplan’s lengthy experience in leadership positions, his clear grasp of our fundamental community issues, and ability to articulate potential solutions will make him a valuable member of the Boulder City Council.
PLAN-Boulder feels that we need some serious change in the makeup of our council. We therefore decided not to endorse any of the incumbents except Mark Wallach. They all demonstrated their knowledge of the city’s issues at the forum and in questionnaires, as would be expected, and had a laudable list of things they want to accomplish; however, was startling to hear the disconnect between what they view as their successes and how those same issues are viewed by the PLAN-Boulder board and the public.
PLAN-Boulder’s most serious concern with the incumbents is that even though they are elected at large to represent the entire community, there seems to be no willingness to hear from the half or more of the community that weren’t their election supporters. The “progressive” agenda that they are implementing has no room for compromises with other views in the community, nor willingness to engage with the many subject experts that abound in Boulder.
The comment we hear over and over from citizens is that they no longer make any effort to provide input on city issues since it seems to go into a black hole without response – that it makes no difference. What used to be an open forum at council meetings to communicate with our elected leaders has turned into a violent and confrontational exercise in futility that no one wants to put themselves through. We need change – and PLAN-Boulder endorses Mark Wallach, Jenny Robins and Rob Kaplan to bring us that change.
For our PLAN-Boulder members and supporters: if you feel compelled to vote for four candidates, we suggest you consider Rachel Rose Isaacson. Ms. Isaacson is young and relatively new to Boulder from Ohio. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Leadership, works part time as a barista, is a renter and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. She identifies as progressive, but answered questions with an open-minded and informed thoughtfulness and an awareness of ecological principles. Her sparkling personality leads us to believe she could work well with colleagues.
