Voters in Boulder’s second ward, on the west side of Main Street, elected Pat Lewis to represent them on the City Council for the next four years.
Lewis won 97 votes; her opponent, Stacie St. Clair, won 52 votes, according to Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Ginger Kunz.
“We have counted all of the ballots that we have received before the close of polls,” at 8 p.m., Kunz said shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 2. The results were preliminary and scheduled to be certified on Nov. 15, she said.
“I appreciate Stacie stepping up to the plate to give it a shot, and there will be other opportunities,” Lewis said around 8:15 p.m. on Nov. 2. “And I appreciate everybody’s support, and I hope to do good. I’m looking forward to it.”
Lewis ran against St. Clair to fill the seat currently held by Sherry Lepley, who did not seek reelection. Lewis will represent ward two alongside Bear Taylor, whose seat is up for reelection in 2023.
Mayor Rusty Giulio and City Council President Drew Dawson, who represents ward one, east of Main Street, each ran unopposed and were reelected by acclamation by the City Council on Oct. 28.
Lewis, 68, moved to Boulder with her family when she was in middle school, and she graduated from Jefferson High School in 1971. She moved to Seattle upon graduation and returned to Boulder in 1994. She currently works part-time as the officer manager for The Monitor. Previously, she owned and operated the Mine Motel in Boulder from 2001–2021, and she owned and operated the Free Enterprise Health Mine near Boulder from 1994–2014. Lewis’ grandfather founded the mine. In Seattle, she worked as an administrative assistant at Lep Profit International from 1990–1993. Before that, she owned and operated a diner in Seattle for five years, from 1985–1990. She opened the diner after years spent working “odd jobs,” including a job in the production department of a local newspaper company. When she first arrived in Seattle, she said, she worked “detailing Cadillacs for $5 a car.”
Lewis previously told The Monitor that she’d contemplated running for City Council while she owned the mine and the motel, but, “being self-employed, it was not something that I felt I had the time for.” She began “seriously” considering a run for office this spring, when she was in the process of selling the motel.
“I felt like I had time,” she said. “Getting involved in community things like [the Jefferson Local Development Corporation] and the school board and those things, I feel like it evolved, like a steppingstone, and educated me, and I felt like it might be something I’d like to do. Boulder is important. I want to see things get done.”
Lewis previously served two terms on the JLDC board, two terms on the JHS school board, and multiple terms on the Boulder Chamber of Commerce board, including as the board president. She is currently in her second term on the county’s Tax Increment Industrial District Advisory Board and is the board’s chair. She is the secretary of Boulder’s Cemetery Advisory Committee and also works as an “administrative assistant” for the Chamber of Commerce.
A full profile of Lewis, and her challenger, St. Clair, was printed in the Oct. 27 issue of The Monitor and is available online.
