Littleton mayor candidate caught removing campaign door hanger concedes

DENVER (KDVR) — A Littleton city councilman running for mayor who was caught removing an opposing campaign’s door hanger has conceded in Tuesday’s election.

District 1 City Councilman Patrick Driscoll ran against incumbent Littleton Mayor Kyle Schlachter in Tuesday’s election, seeking new leadership for the city and running primarily on a platform of “preserving our community’s character” and supporting a city land-use restriction ballot question, 3A, also on Tuesday’s ballot.

Unofficial results as of Thursday morning show Schlachter, who opposed the land-use ballot question, leading Driscoll by more than 2,000 votes. Littleton election results, however, were a mixed bag, as voters appeared to approve of Ballot Question 3A.

The ballot question had initially been challenged by the city of Littleton itself in court over concern about its constitutionality, but the city voluntarily withdrew the petition ahead of the election.

Driscoll concedes in mayor’s race

Driscoll made headlines earlier this year as a doorbell camera at a residence in the city caught him removing a door hanger that supported Schlachter and opposed 3A and replacing it with his own.

Driscoll has since admitted and apologized for the incident, saying,” I should not have removed the flyer and I apologize,” but voters told FOX31’s Gabrielle Franklin last month they were concerned about someone with this conduct in the mayor’s office.

“I got into this race because I knew my fellow local elected officials weren’t hearing their voters,” Driscoll said Thursday morning in a Facebook post conceding to Schlachter. “While we fought hard, I’m sorry that I came up short in my election that so many of you supported.”

Meanwhile, Schlachter in a Facebook post thanked his voters for re-electing him.

“I am incredibly honored and grateful that the voters of Littleton decided to re-elect me as Mayor,” Schlachter said. “This victory is not just mine, it belongs to voters of Littleton who want our city to be a welcoming and forward-looking community.”

Ballot Question 3A passes

Though Driscoll himself lost his race, he did voice appreciation for Littleton voters for approving the land use restrictions at the center of Question 3A.

“Not all was lost, though, thanks to the dedicated and brilliant supporters of 3A,” Driscoll said. “We were right on the issue and the voters resoundingly told our new city council, hands off!”

Driscoll had been a strong proponent of the question in his campaign, saying opponents of 3A, including Schlachter, wanted to cut residents out of development processes for multi-family housing in neighborhoods.

Those opponents, however, had said 3A puts too many restrictions on homeowners and limits future growth of the city. Vibrant Littleton, a non-profit that works on development and housing issues in the city, had campaigned against 3A with the slogan, “Don’t HOA our Littleton!“

Schlachter in his Facebook post said that though he did not support 3A, he would work to address concerns of residents who voted to pass it.

“Just as I have done over these past four years, I will work to address the housing and public safety challenges that I’ve heard are important to our residents,” he said. “While I did not support ballot question 3A, I do think our community spoke loudly tonight by passing this Charter Amendment.”

Question 3A adds the land use restrictions to the city’s charter, so any effort to change it in the future would have to go through a petition campaign to add another ballot question to a future election.

Littleton removed its challenge in court of 3A since it said the challenge wouldn’t be addressed before the election, but said the city may still seek further clarification from the courts on the validity of it in the future.