2026 Candidate Endorsements
PLAN-Boulder Country 2026 Candidate Endorsements
Mayor
Aquiles La Grave
Aquiles is a long-time Boulder resident who has served our community on boards and commissions, non-profits and grassroots organizing. PLAN-Boulder County is endorsing Aquiles for Mayor because of his focus on these important issues: how council interacts and listens to the public; greater transparency around how the city spends taxpayer dollars; and an independent city auditor with the ability to publicly evaluate city performance; and more attention on public safety. Also of importance to our organization and its members is Aquiles’ support of environmental programs, including clean air, water and energy. Boulder was once an environmental leader, but the environment seems to have fallen off the council’s radar. He has played a leadership role in addressing the wildfire threat to Boulder. He opposes the $400 million Recreation and Safety Bond property tax and bond issue currently on the ballot, with a final cost of over $600 million including the finance charges!
PLAN-Boulder joins many community organizations and individuals who feel that Boulder is heading in the wrong direction, and making questionable management decisions that are challenging our financial and environmental stability. Aquiles says “Boulder doesn’t need more promises. It needs a mayor who knows how to organize people, get things done and stick around for the results”. We think Aquiles is the change agent we need to do just that.
Taishya Adams
Taishya is a current City council member who has focused concerns on environmental issues and social justice. Our support for Taishya is based on her outspoken concern for the future of our water supply, which is an issue of highest priority to PLAN-Boulder.
The election for mayor uses Ranked Choice Voting. In this election there are five candidates running for Mayor, and you can select your first choice, second choice, third choice and so on. We are ranking Aquiles as our first and strongest choice, and Taishya as our second choice. We urge you to do the same. You do not have to rank all five candidates if they do not meet your expectations as candidates.
For more details on Ranked Choice Voting go to https://bouldercolorado.gov/guide/ranked-choice-voting-guide
City Council
New faces
PLAN-Boulder is endorsing two new faces for City Council. Both have experience in analyzing and managing the finances of large organizations, and both are focusing on the challenges facing Boulder’s financial future. They both support the addition of an Independent City Auditor as an important step in getting the city back to a stable financial condition. Both describe themselves as pragmatic, and willing to work with anyone to solve Boulder’s problems. PLAN-Boulder sees the need for new representation on Boulder’s City Council, and we endorse Dave Martus and Ryan Jamieson to help lead the way for required changes.
David Martus
Dave has built his career in institutional finance, including as a Senior Portfolio Manager at Colorado PERA, where he helped steward the retirement savings for hundreds of thousands of Colorado teachers, state troopers and public employees, including City of Boulder employees. His approach to issues is to inform himself, listen to a wide range of viewpoints and build consensus to actually solve problems. He has 40 years of the kind of financial expertise the council has been missing and a solid, pragmatic approach to leadership that is what Boulder government needs.
Ryan Jamieson
Ryan is a cybersecurity consultant supporting climate resilience, simpler zoning, fiscal stewardship and housing affordability. He spent four and one half years in the Army, including in Iraq. Ryan worked for about six years as an internal auditor at American Express. He founded Knit Security three years ago to provide cybersecurity consulting and services to businesses. A central focus of his campaign will be addressing what he calls the city’s “Kafkaesque” bureaucracy, and he calls for revising our 900+ page city code to simplify it. He supports adding an Independent City Auditor to help evaluate what our community priorities are and how to establish a budgeting process with identified goals, costs, evaluation and assigned responsibility. “Both the Army and Amex were big lessons in navigating bureaucracy effectively, and my time as an auditor taught me the value of the role,” he said.
Some continuity
PLAN-Boulder recognizes the need for some continuity in promoting change in our city council leadership. We are endorsing Tina Marquis, Tara Winer and Ryan Schuchard, three incumbents that have been most responsive to issues of great concern to PLAN-Boulder.
Tina Marquis
Most of us are familiar with Tina after her 4 years of service on the City Council and two terms on the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education. Her priorities cover the range of issues that are front and center in this 2026 election. Tina makes herself exceptionally well informed on the details of issues that come before council and is more responsive to constituents than many other council members. We especially appreciate her engagement with the neighbors on University Hill who are trying to deal with the impacts of the state mandate to eliminate occupancy limits, and the damage occurring from outside investors buying up residential properties and converting them to high occupancy student rentals.
Tara Winer
Tara has an unusual ability to reach out to, and work with everyone. She has always given PLAN-Boulder’s issues respectful consideration and makes a real effort to understand the details. These are characteristics that we find critical to good governance, and better governance in the city of Boulder is a critical requirement for our next council.
Ryan Schuchard
PLAN-Boulder and Ryan have had different positions on the density of housing during Ryan’s first term. We still have more to discuss and resolve about how transportation policies will work for our entire range of citizens. We are endorsing Ryan because of his leadership in bringing several issues of great concern to PLAN-Boulder to the city council. Most importantly, he was the only council member to engage with the issue of toxic Coal Ash that will be removed from the Valmont Power Station by Xcel Energy. He made sure this matter was included in the discussion with Xcel regarding their performance on the requirements for continuing their franchise. Ryan was also instrumental in making sure that the issue of the future of the Boulder Airport received a public hearing. And he was one of the votes to reject the formation of a Downtown Development Authority that proposed taking an increment of revenue from our restricted funds, including Open Space, without any approval of the citizens that voted to restrict the funds.
