3 Dems vie for CU regents 2nd District seat
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Three Democrats are competing for the 2nd Congressional District nomination for a University of Colorado Board of Regents seat.
Why it matters: The regents oversee CU's four campuses, setting policy, managing finances, hiring top leaders and making major governance decisions.
State of play: Democrats hold a board majority, but outgoing CD-2 Regent Callie Rennison broke with her party when she helped appoint a Republican chair.
Meet the candidates:
Kubs Lalchandani is a Boulder tech attorney who went to undergrad and law school at Cornell University.
- His campaign priorities include preparing graduates for an AI-driven workforce, boosting graduation rates and student diversity, and shielding the university from federal interference.
Edie Hooton is a former state representative for District 10, which includes Boulder and Gunbarrel, from 2017 to 2023.
- Her priorities include tuition affordability, collective bargaining for CU employees, strategic AI use in the curriculum and pushing back against the Trump administration.
- The campaign recently drew attention after Hooton fired her campaign manager for falsely posing as a CU parent on Reddit and criticizing Lalchandani in an anonymous post.
Murray Smith, a geospatial data scientist, is a Boulder native and the only CU alumnus in the race.
- Smith's top issues are student success, "good faith" negotiations with CU employees and prioritizing academics over commercial ventures.
Marty Neilson is the only Republican running in the typically Democratic-leaning CD-2.
- She does not appear to have an active website, but in a candidate profile with the Daily Camera Neilson said she is the chief financial officer of an energy company.
- Neilson's priorities include diversifying funding sources and reducing dependence on grants amid federal funding uncertainty.