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So far, 15 of the 16 candidates for mayor have picked up the forms they’ll need to petition their way onto the May 3 ballot. The straggler is Spesál M. Avery Flanagan, notes the Denver Post, which also reports James Mejía has already returned more than three times the 300 signatures necessary. Several of the candidates appeared on the KIPP High School campus to discuss education issues recently, the Post writes, providing video from the event.
Meanwhile, Mejía and Denver City Councilman Doug Linkhart, also in the running for mayor, are voicing concerns about the price of the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Communities program, which allows local law enforcement agencies to flag undocumented-immigrant inmates for deportation. “I would certainly want to have conversations about opting out of a program that would put even further burden on a budget that is already $100 million in debt,” Mejía tells the Colorado Independent. Perhaps they can work on the matter with former Congresswoman Betsy Markey, who has taken a job as the assistant secretary of intergovernmental affairs for the DHS, reports the Greeley Tribune.