By Don Knox, STATEBILL.COM

GOLDEN – A total of 14 people ran for two vacant Senate seats this month in Denver, but a similar election in central Jefferson County could be a solo sprint.
Max Tyler, 61, a “semi-retired” businessman and the House District 23 chair who twice got Rep. Gwyn Green elected, is the odds-on favorite for Green’s vacant seat. Green announced during the session that she would step down for health reasons and to spend more time with her grandchildren.
A second candidate, small-business consultant Mary Ceynowa, filed to run but is said to be considering withdrawing from the race after gauging her support among 63 electors, which includes Democratic precinct committee persons, and party and elected officials.
“I would say she has a very impressive background and is a very capable person,” Tyler said of his would-be opponent. “I’ve been working with the people of this district for four or five years. I know these folks, and I think it might have an impact on the election.”
Candidates may also be nominated from the floor. If Tyler winds up being the only candidate, the vote will be taken “by acclimation,” said Jefferson County Democratic Party Chair Ann Knollman.
The election is 7 p.m. Wednesday at the American Legion Hall, 1655 Simms St., Lakewood.
In an interview with StateBill.com, Tyler said he has lived in Jefferson County for many years, where he built up and sold two small businesses, a typesetting company called Campro Systems and a computer consulting and networking company called Compro.
Today, he does process-reengineering consulting under the name of “The Star Group.”
“I make businesses more effective in using their information systems, and I work on database and content management Web sites,” Tyler said.
Asked why he’s running for Green’s House seat, Tyler said he’s been civically involved “almost all of my life.” He chaired the small-business council of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and he served a three-year stint on the chamber’s board. He also was the founding chairman of Denver’s small-business incubator.
In the past four or five years, he said he’s spent a lot of time getting Democratic candidates elected to office in Jefferson County.
“I was very much involved with Gwyn Green’s campaign,” he said. “I helped take her from a 47-vote margin (of victory) in 2004 to a much more substantial one” in 2006, and also 2008.
Tyler said his work knocking on “thousands of doors” on behalf of Green and of newly elected Lakewood councilwoman and political novice Cindy Baroway “makes me a good candidate to carry on her tradition.”
Green’s primary passion, Tyler said, is protecting children, and she’s also focused on creating jobs and reasonable transportation and promoting and getting more people covered with healthcare.
Adding one interest of his own, he said, “It’s vitally important we get off the dirty carbon and start promoting whatever we can for renewable energy and encourage people to take different modes of transportation.”
Tyler said he’s been a proponent of RTD’s West light rail line, now under construction through Jefferson County.
“It’ll be a good model for change,” he said, noting that he’s attended meetings for a group that’s looking at redevelopment opportunities for a planned station on Lamar Street.
Asked about the controversy involving business owners whose property is being condemned near 13th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard, Tyler said, “You noticed they’ve been real quiet lately. They’ve settled with RTD. They got a price that RTD probably thought was too much, and that they thought was too little. Lakewood also has offered some help.”
Tyler said the eminent domain battle was contentious and high profile, and he quoted a friend who was involved in one of the first “takings” on the T-Rex line to the Denver Tech Center.
“Eminent domain is a horrible thing … but it sometimes absolutely has to be done,” he said the friend said.