{"id":2456393,"date":"2020-03-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=323385"},"modified":"2020-03-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T06:00:00","slug":"coronavirus-pandemic-forces-basalt-candidates-to-explore-new-campaign-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/coronavirus-pandemic-forces-basalt-candidates-to-explore-new-campaign-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus pandemic forces Basalt candidates to explore new campaign strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There\u2019s nothing like a pandemic to wipe out campaign strategy for candidates seeking public office.<\/p>\n

The nine candidates in Basalt\u2019s April 7 municipal election are being forced to get creative with their campaigns in the era of the coronavirus and social distancing.<\/p>\n

Knocking on doors? Unacceptable. Small neighborhood gatherings to pitch your platform? No way. Candidate forums? No longer possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously put a huge damper on our ability to get out there and talk to people,\u201d mayoral candidate Rob Leavitt<\/a> said this week.<\/p>\n

Mayoral candidate Bill Kane<\/a> said he and his wife, Caroline, have \u201cstepped down\u201d their campaign efforts a couple of notches as coronavirus emerged as a very real threat this month. They went from knocking on doors and engaging with people to hanging cards that outline Kane\u2019s positions on doorknobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just started feeling a little bit creepy even leaving (hangers),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He is considering making telephone calls but is weighing if even that would be an intrusion upon people at a stressful time when many people are out of work or dealing with working at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy perception is this municipal election isn\u2019t the top of the list of issues on people\u2019s minds right now,\u201d Kane said.<\/p>\n

Mayoral candidate Bill Infante<\/a> said he will experiment with social media to keep a personal touch to the campaign. He will host a Facebook Live discussion on his Facebook page. Participants must send him a \u201cfriend request\u201d in advance to tap into the discussion, which will be on surviving and recovery from the coronavirus crisis.<\/p>\n

The loss of the personal touch in campaigning is the biggest adjustment for Infante.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeeting face to face is always something I like,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to maintain that personal touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the live discussion, he is posting videos and text explaining his positions on social media as well as making phone calls to special contact lists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m using any platform I can to get the word out,\u201d Infante said.<\/p>\n

Town Manager Ryan Mahoney confirmed Thursday morning that the election will go on in Basalt despite the statewide stay-at-home order by Gov. Jared Polis<\/a>. The order requires people to stay home with the only exception for essential tasks, such as trips to the grocery store and essential workers reporting for duty. Mahoney said election judges will be able to report to Town Hall to count ballots on Election Day. Judges were going through training Thursday.<\/p>\n

As for voters, they should have received ballots in the mail by now. They can return them via mail, as long as they are received by Town Clerk Pam Schilling on April 7, or return them to the drop box at Town Hall.<\/p>\n

Leavitt hopes Basalt residents are using the downtime to research the candidates\u2019 positions and make an informed vote. Perhaps the spare time will spur more people to vote, Leavitt and Infante speculated. On the other hand, maybe people are too concerned with paying their bills to worry about the municipal election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a possibility they won\u2019t vote at all,\u201d Infante said.<\/p>\n

The election also features six candidates vying for three Town Council seats. It is an at-large race, so the three candidates drawing the most votes win.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for all nine candidates in the races, forums were held earlier this month for the Town Council seats<\/a> and mayor\u2019s office<\/a> before the ban on large group gatherings, so voters were able to see the candidates under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are strange times to try and campaign for a position in public office,\u201d candidate Tiffany Haddad said.<\/p>\n

She said she went door-to-door in a few neighborhoods early in the campaign, but had to cut her plans short. Now she\u2019s focusing on social media.<\/p>\n

Candidate Elyse Hottel organized a meet-and-greet with voters at a Basalt coffee shop just as coronavirus was grabbing attention in the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally, I had envisioned pop-up events at coffee shops and restaurants around town, knocking on doors, both business and residential, and standing at the stop sign by 7-Eleven at the end of the school day, waving hello to parents,\u201d Hottel said. \u201cBut there are no kids in school and no parent pickups, there is no loitering in cafes and restaurants, and going door-to-door during a pandemic feels highly imprudent.\u201d<\/p>\n

She shifted her attention to print materials in newspapers and online. Ditto for candidate David Knight. He also suspended door-to-door, which he said had been insightful.<\/p>\n

Candidate Jennifer Riffle said she still engages with people she meets while out walking her dog, though at a safe social distance and only if they want to talk campaign issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is unaffected campaign-wise is my non-use of Facebook,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Riffle, the only incumbent in the race, said she is spending more time focusing on her duties than campaigning. Duties at this time include reading daily reports from the Pitkin County Incident Management Team, Eagle County officials and the town of Basalt staff, she said.<\/p>\n

Candidate Kirk \u201cDieter\u201d Schindler said he planned to be active at this point in the campaign by knocking on doors and meeting with small groups. That strategy changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s unaffected is that the network of friends and neighbors who are reaching out to talk about Basalt\u2019s issues via email or phone is increasing, which includes some folks that are not connected in the social media sense,\u201d he said. \u201cOften we connect through an old-fashioned phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s nothing like a pandemic to wipe out campaign strategy for candidates seeking public office. The nine candidates in Basalt\u2019s April 7 municipal election are being forced to get creative with their campaigns in the era of the coronavirus and social distancing. Knocking on doors? Unacceptable. Small neighborhood gatherings to pitch your platform? No way. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 07:42:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}