With ballots for the July 10, 2007 special City Council election already arriving in many citizens' mailboxes, it's vitally important for various local groups to get candidate endorsements out fast.

But the whirlwind election cycle was a little too fast for at least one group that decided against making an endorsement at this time. Also, certain groups decided to offer a list of several acceptable candidates as opposed to endorsing one choice to hopefully fill the single open council seat.

The citizen group PLAN-Boulder County (PBC) said in a Monday release that five of the 14 candidates "warrant particularly serious consideration." They are: Eugene Pearson, Susan Peterson, Angelique Espinoza, Ken Wilson and Matt Appelbaum.

PBC is perhaps best known for its support of managing growth and environmental protection, and its release said Pearson and Peterson are "very supportive of PLAN-Boulder princi ples."

Pearson is the former University of Colorado Student Union Legislative Council president and worked to foster green building on campus while he was in student government, while Peterson is a civil engineer and marketing executive as well as an investor in the wind energy firm Renewable Choice Energy.

The release also said Espinoza "looks like a promising political leader," but did not offer specifics. She is an owner/partner with the information technology support firm Free Range Geeks, a program developer with Intercambio de Comunidades and an education volunteer.

PBC said Wilson and Appelbaum would be its "candidates of choice" if experience was the only factor. Wilson is an engineer and served on Boulder's Water Resources Advisory Board (WRAB), and PBC said the WRAB experience is a "notable asset." Appelbaum is a former council member and has served on numerous civic boards and committees, and PBC said his institutional memory would "provide a useful perspective."

PBC has also posted candidate answers to its questionnaire on its Web site, www.planboulder.org.

The Boulder Outdoor Coalition (BOC), an "umbrella group" made up of citizens who enjoy using Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) for recreational pursuits such as biking, running, dog walking and other purposes, endorsed Ken Wilson, according to a post on the BOC Web site www.boulder-outdoor-coalition.org.

BOC member Peter Bakwin wrote in a Monday e-mail that the BOC executive committee voted unanimously for Wilson. He said the group felt Wilson's credentials were strong in general, but also said the B OC was impressed with Wilson's views on access to Open Space.

The BOC post said Wilson favors a balanced policy that would preserve the OSMP environmental features while providing "abundant opportunities for low-impact recreation." It also said Wilson said lack of recreationist support might lead to the defeat of Open Space taxes in the future.

Bakwin said the BOC is interested in other current candidates and could consider endorsing some of them during the November election, when there could be six or more open seats.

And the board of Downtown Boulder, Inc. (DBI) will wait until the fall election season to endorse candidates. Jane Jenkins, DBI's executive director, said Monday that the board felt there wasn't enough time available to fully and fairly evaluate all 14 candi dates and then make an endorsement.

Boulder's business community held a candidate forum last week, but two of the forum sponsors, Boulder Tomorrow and the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, don't do candidate endorsements. Dan Powers, community affairs manager for the Chamber, said it will post written candidate questionnaire responses on its Web site, www.boulderchamber.com, in the very near future.

The local Indian Peaks Group (IPG) of the Sierra Club also decided to endorse Wilson. Deirdre Butler, IPG chair, said Monday that the group was impressed with Wilson's work with local water issues on WRAB, his involvement with a huge solar energy project in the San Luis Valley /st2:Sn> of southern Colorado, and that Wilson is now a graduate student in biology at CU-Boulder.

"Having a lifelong learner and a scientist on Boulder City Council bodes well for the city, especially given Ken's proven commitment to environmental concerns," said Butler. Also, the Progressive Majority (PM) Colorado Advisory Council has officially endorsed Angelique Espinoza's candidacy. PM is a national organization with operations in at least eight states, and its recent endorsement letter to Espinoza said its mission is to "recruit, develop and elect progressive champions like you" to office.

"We are proud to count you among our endorsed candidates and your strong support of a multi-issue progressive agenda makes it a pleasure to further support your candidacy," said the letter signed by PM's Colorado director Joe Miklosi.

Contact Richard Valenty about this story, or to bring to the Daily's attention any other candidate endorsements from a local group, at (303) 443-6272 ext. 126 or valenty@coloradodaily.co