While this year's Longmont city elections are still seven months away, the mayor's post already has attracted one announced candidate.
Véronique Bellamy is running for the seat now filled by Mayor Dennis Coombs, who cannot seek re-election because of term limits.
"I've been planning for this for a while," said Bellamy, a senior software architect for Phase Zero who has lived in Longmont since August 2013.
"I think that Longmont has a lot of opportunity and a lot of things going for it," Bellamy said in an interview, but "we need to protect it from opportunists."
Longmont election information
Information for potential candidates and Longmont voters about this year's City Council elections is available at the Longmont City Clerk's web site: bit.ly/2o1z5FE
She said, for example, that she opposes allowing any "fracking" by oil and gas firms drilling new wells inside Longmont's city limits, even after the Colorado Supreme Court last year ruled against Longmont's ban against the use of hydraulic fracturing to free up oil and gas deposits.
Bellamy said she also wants to allow retail and medical marijuana businesses to operate in Longmont, something currently prohibited.
Bellamy's name already be familiar to some Longmont voters because she was one of three candidates in last year's election contest to represent the District I seat on the Regional Transportation District's board of directors.
She and former RTD board member Lee Kemp of Broomfield lost that contest. Voters in the district re-elected incumbent Judy Lubow of Longmont.
Bellamy said the inadequacy of the RTD's transit services for Longmont will be a "fairly huge issue of my campaign" for mayor.
Bellamy, who filed her mayoral candidate's affidavit and campaign committee organization papers with the Longmont City Clerk's Office in January, was the first person to do so — and thus far, is the only candidate to file for any of the council seats up for election in November, according to City Clerk Valeria Skitt.
Those positions, in addition to the mayor's office, include the Ward II Council seat that represents a southwest and southside Longmont area and two at-large seats that represent the city's entire geographic area.
Incumbent Ward II Councilman Jeff Moore said this week that he has not decided whether to run for another term.
Incumbent Councilwoman at-large Polly Christensen could not be reached for comment about whether she plans to seek re-election.
The second at-large council seat up for election this year will be open, because incumbent Councilman Gabe Santos is term-limited.
Santos said in an interview that he's talked to at least one person who has expressed interest in running for that seat, but that it would not be appropriate for him to identify that potential candidate.
While Santos cannot run for re-election to his council seat, he could make a bid for the mayor's job, a possibility he said he's been asked about "a lot."
"Anything's possible," Santos said.
"I haven't ruled anything out," he said, but he added that it's too soon to firm up and announce any such plans: "It's only April."
Coombs said in an interview that he's heard some "random names" of people who might be interested in running to succeed him as mayor, but "I'd hate to speculate" about who might actually proceed to enter the race.
"I have no control over" who any of those candidates might turn out to be, said Coombs. He said that even though one candidate has stepped forward, "I actually think it's too early to show your hand at this."
Any Longmont resident interested in running for mayor or a City Council seat must get between 25 and 50 registered voters' signatures on nominating petitions in order to qualify for the Nov. 7 election ballot. Petitions cannot be circulated until Aug. 8, but must be completed by Aug. 28.
John Fryar: 303-684-5211, jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartc
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