STU FRASER IS TELLURIDE'S NEW MAYOR

Former Council Member Takes Mayoral Seat by 15 Votes   

The Telluride Daily Planet
Published:11/07/07

He squeezed out a 15-vote victory in yesterday’s elections, which also swept three new members into town council and killed a $5 million bond that would have repaved main street and widened the sidewalks.
Three candidates had been vying for the vacant mayor’s seat, but the race boiled down to a contest between two men, town council member Stu Fraser, and former town council member Terry Tice. They came to represent the conflicting personalities of a maturing ski town — its moderate, development-friendly side going head to head with its progressive, preservationist side.
And ultimately, in this town that voted to impeach Bush, the candidate who rides around town on a mountain bike with a hand-woven bag slung over his shoulder didn’t prevail. The blue-collar Last Dollar Saloon, the site of Tice’s party, was quiet and sparse last night. It was the ritzier Rustico, a few doors down, where Fraser’s supporters toasted the new mayor.
“This is the weakest point I can have in the next four years,” an exhausted and elated Fraser said. “I’m blown away. Everything I’ve felt about this town, I still feel. I just —” and he trailed off, amid congratulations and clinking wine glasses.
Fraser won 365 votes, just 15 more than the 350 votes received by Tice, a 35-year Telluride resident and Valley Floor advocate. Chance Leoff took in 81 votes for mayor.
One question that will doubtlessly float through coffee shop chatter this week is whether Leoff’s candidacy siphoned voters from Tice, ensuring Fraser’s victory, or took them from Fraser, narrowing his margin of victory to a bare 15 souls.
Since Fraser grabbed the mayor’s seat, he vacates his council seat, so all three candidates for town council will win spots.
With 528 votes, Thom Carnevale led the pack by a margin of nearly 100 votes. David Oyster followed with 432 votes, and Lulu Hunt landed third, with 349.
Carnevale was the only candidate amid the crowd at the county courthouse waiting for results last night. When county clerk Peggy Nerlin handed out the results at 9:30 p.m. and Carnevale realized he was the highest vote-getter of all the candidates, he seemed truly shocked.
“I’m speechless,” he said. “I am surprised, really I am. I just expected it to be a really, really close race.”
Jerry Greene, the lone candidate for town meeting moderator, won his seat handily with 523 votes.
A resounding ‘No’ came in on heated sidewalks. Telluride voters said they didn’t want a $5 million main street improvement project — Ballot issue 2A — handily, 575 to 213. The improvement project, supported and crafted by the Telluride council, proposed improvements such as replacing the water main under Colorado Avenue, widening and heating sidewalks on the south side of the street and improving the grade.
The vote leaves the street without heated sidewalks but a serious problem in the rotting water pipes. Lulu Hunt, a newly-elected town council member, said last night, “We’re going to go back to the drawing board and we'll figure it out.”

Amid the toasts and congratulations at Rustico, Tice walked in to bid Fraser well.
“Get her going,” Tice told Fraser, pumping his hand.
“I’m going to want your help,” Fraser replied.
Tice looked pained. “We’ll see,” he said. “We’ll see,” and threaded his way to the exit. He was already gone by the time a woman exulted to the room, “Where do we go from here?”
Fraser’s face lit up, like he’d been waiting to answer the question all night long.
“Up.”