Registered, active Boulder voters might begin receiving ballots for the 2007 election in roughly two weeks, and a number of local groups recently released their lists of endorsements.

SIERRA SEVEN

The Indian Peaks Group (IPG) of the Sierra Club endorsed seven Boulder City Council candidates, and there are seven open council seats in 2007. They are:

• Matt Appelbaum: a former council member and former member of the IPG executive committee.
• Macon Cowles: an environmental attorney, former city Planning Board member and former IPG chair.
• Angelique Espinoza: owner/partner with information technology firm Free Range Geeks, a community volunteer and cohousing member.
• Crystal Gray: a current council member, Sierra Club member and former Open Space board member and chair.
• Lisa Morzel: a former council member, won a national Sierra Club award in 2003, former member of Boulder County Resource Conservation board.
• Susan Osborne: Two decades with the city's Planning Department, city's first energy director, co-president of Historic Boulder.
• Ken Wilson: current council member, served five years on city's Water Resources board, involved in promotion of 100-megawatt solar power project.

KC Becker, the IPG's political chair, said IPG sent out questionnaires to all 22 candidates and 21 responded. She said IPG held interviews with Œ¿ or 11" of the candidates, and it participated in a recent candidate "environmental forum" with a number of local groups.

Monday's IPG release said at least 11 candidates made it clear that they care about the environment and sustainability, and that IPG used "experience as a yardstick" in making its decision. Becker said the endorsement information will be posted on the Web, but it isn't online yet. She also said there are about 3,500 IPG member households in the City of Boulder, and said about 28,000 "slate cards" will be printed for door-to-door literature drops.

IPG also endorsed Boulder County Ballot Question 1A, an extension of a 0.10 percent Open Space sales tax, and Question 1B, an extension of a 0.10 percent transportation tax.

OUTDOOR COALITION DECISION

The Boulder Outdoor Coalition (BOC), an "umbrella group" of recreational Open Space users, endorsed four candidates. They are:

• Adam Massey: former executive director of the mountain biking group Boulder Off-Road Alliance, currently a property manager with an MBA from CU, participated directly in Open Space Visitor Master Plan (VMP) discussions.
• Ken Wilson: an avid outdoorsman who received the BOC endorsement for the July 2007 special council election.
• Angelique Espinoza: her Web site said she will work to advance Boulder's leadership on environmental stewardship and active outdoor lifestyle if elected.
• Susan Osborne: worked on the campaign to get the first Open Space tax on the ballot, a frequent trail user who believes trail maintenance needs improvement.

Last Friday's BOC release said it believes the four candidates will "best represent the balance" needed between "stewardship of our public lands and providing access for recreational opportunities."

Buzz Burrell, spokesperson for the BOC, said Monday that there might be more than 5,000 members (total) in the recreational groups that have some BOC involvement. He said the BOC used its questionnaire responses and live interviews, among other forms of communication, while making its decisions.

The BOC Web site currently lists 11 sets of candidate responses, and Burrell said the group unintentionally and mistakenly did not send questionnaires to all 22, but suggested that the group might post new candidate responses online in the future.

The questionnaire focused on Open Space access and management issues. Burrell said BOC didn't attempt to go deeply into a broad range of issues beyond access and identifying probable quality public servants, and said voters can check other sources to learn candidate stances on different issues.

"We didn't try to be all things," said Burrell. "We don't have to be totally comprehensive and we don't have to speak for everybody. We can say we think these four candidates are good, and if you like somebody else, by all means go vote for them."

PLAN-BOULDER FOLDER

PLAN-Boulder County (PBC) - a citizen group best known for its support of slow-growth or "smart-growth" policies - endorsed seven candidates. They are:

• Macon Cowles: has spent his recent years working in the green building investment and engineering field.
• Crystal Gray: Former co-chair of PBC, director of Adams County Parks and Community Resources department.
• Lisa Morzel: USGS research scientist, helped establish Resource 2000.
• Susan Osborne: oversaw vision and construction of Boulder Creek Path, served on city's Parks and Recreation board.
• Eugene Pearson: former UCSU Legislative Council president, won David Brower Award for work on campus green building as an undergrad.
• Susan Peterson: partnership program manager with Cadence Design, investor with alternative energy firm Renewable Choice Energy.
• Ken Wilson: PBC called out his diligence and consideration of water issues and development impacts on neighborhoods.

A quote from PBC chair Pat Shanks in a Monday press release said PBC is endorsing a "well-rounded slate" of candidates with experience and knowledge of city environmental and planning issues, along with some fresh faces.

PBC held a series of weekly live candidate forums, and all 22 candidates appeared at one of the forums. The group has posted questionnaire responses from 20 candidates on its Web site, and PBC endorsements require a two-thirds majority vote of its board.

"With so many important environmental, transit-oriented growth, and community sustainability issues at stake, this election á will greatly influence the future of Boulder," said Shanks in the release.

PBC also endorsed Boulder County Ballot Questions 1A and 1B.

FIDOS SPEAKS

Friends Interested in Dogs and Open Space (FIDOS), a group of local dog aficionados, decided to endorse five candidates. They are:

• Shawn Coleman: sales and finance manager for Smooth Motors, member of the city's Downtown Management Commission, professional clarinetist.
• Angelique Espinoza
• Adam Massey
• Susan Osborne
• Ken Wilson

With the exception of Coleman, the FIDOS list was exactly the same as the BOC. Lori Fuller, FIDOS vice president, said Monday that FIDOS considered information from the BOC questionnaires, but did interview some of the candidates directly. She said FIDOS didn't interview every candidate in part because "there were just too many," and she said the organization got to know enough about some of the candidates during the July special election process.

Fuller said FIDOS is concerned about the restrictive direction of certain Open Space recreational access policies, and said FIDOS is interested in seeing some "fresh faces" on council.

"In the end, we decided to take a very hard look at historical support of Open Space restrictions, and what was beyond necessary in FIDOS' eyes," said Fuller.