4 JANUARY 1-7, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Ready to say goodbye to 2025? We are! After a year of watching out for people who want to deport immigrants, defund climate scientists and denigrate anyone who isn’t MAGA cum loud, we’re eager to keep our eyes peeled for other individuals who are out to make waves in the new year. Here are fi ve to watch in government, business and politics in 2026; turn to the Culture, Cafe and Music pages for more. Alli Jackson In January 2025, Danielle Jurinsky graced the cover of Westword’s 2025 People to Watch issue. The conservative Aurora City Council member was still fanning the fl ames regarding Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, rumored to be taking over apartment com- plexes across the city. In that issue, Jurinsky said she considered herself to be the loudest voice on Aurora’s immigration issue. Oh, what a difference one year can make. Just eleven months later, Aurora voters ousted Jurinsky in favor of some fresh faces, one of them belonging to political newbie Alli Jackson. Jackson, a thirty-year-old fos- ter mom who works at Arapahoe Libraries, snagged one of the at-large spots on council – while Jurinsky and another conservative incumbent lost their seats, and progressives grabbed the councilmajority. In her campaign, Jackson said she would focus on welcoming immigrants, offering a successful onboarding program and chang- ing the narrative around Aurora spread by national and local politicians and pundits over the last few years. Jackson’s background in social work, and her experience as a foster mom, are pivotal to her character and how she will lead on council. “A lot of the ethics of social work guide me, like dignity and worth of a person just for being a person,” Jackson says, adding that those ethics will be a guiding principle in how she treats immigrants coming to Aurora, Colorado’s most diverse city. In 2026, the new councilmember says she’ll be working on enhancing the city’s onboarding program, making it a national model for welcoming newcomers. “I’ve met with the mayor and we’re both on board for some sort of non-partisan, national buy-in for Aurora to set the bar for how are we wel- coming our new neighbors,” Jackson says. “How do we get them onboarded, plugged into resources and get them up to date on rules, things like license-plate registration? Are we plugging them into the chambers, helping them fi gure out how to get their business license?” Jackson is frustrated by how Aurora was “drug through the mud” by Jurinsky on national outlets like Dr. Phil Primetime. While there are parts of Aurora that are under-serviced and the city has other prob- lems requiring attention – like many of the apartments having out-of-state landlords that don’t take care of the properties – that doesn’t make it a scary place, she says. She wants to work on rebranding Aurora and changing its perception in the public eye. The November election was Jackson’s first run at public office, but she’s been plugged into the politics of Aurora for a while, attending council meetings and meet- ing community members, some of whom inspired her to run. “A big piece that really solidifi ed me running was the Kilyn Lewis family,” Jackson says. In fact, one of her goals for 2026 will be to issue an apology to the family of Kilyn Lewis, an unarmed Black man whom Aurora police fatally shot in 2024. She then hopes to create a memo- rial for those whose lives have been lost at the hands of Aurora police, making amends and creating a bridge between civilians and their city. “I’m hoping that will symbolize that start of rebuilding that connection,” she notes. “Then I’m hoping to have forums between police and community.” In 2026, she also wants to bring more youth and student voices into politics. “I’m looking at starting some internships with our high schools in the area, to start that love of politics and civics early on And let’s get some of those students into our offi ce at city hall and show them how policies get made and what municipality does,” she explains. We’ll be watching Jackson to see what changes she brings to Aurora and how the state and national perception of the city shifts as she serves her constituents. “I think Aurora is such a unique, diverse melting pot,” she concludes. “We’ve got the infrastructure, we’ve got the resources, we’ve got the people, so lets make it happen.” – Katrina Leibee Paul DePodesta Mr. Moneyball. That analytics guy. Google boy. Call him what you want, but Paul De- Podesta is now the Colorado Rockies presi- dent of baseball operations, and we’re here to see what happens...as much as we can stomach, anyway. Last season’s 119 losses were a hard slog. Barring an all-time turnaround, it will probably be diffi cult to watch the Colorado Rockies in 2026, giving Denver fans all the more reason to train their eyes on DePodesta. The longtime sports executive — known for his role in the book-turned-movie Moneyball — was hired by the Monfort family in Novem- ber to turn around the Rockies. A hefty task for DePodesta, who didn’t come to Denver with infallible credentials. But who would? We’re talking about a team with one World Series appearance that hasn’t seen a winning season in fi ve years or a playoff series victory since 2007. A team that routinely sends great homegrown players to more esteemed fran- chises, only to sign less-talented, more injury- prone players to similarly large contracts. Colorado was never bagging a spotless golden boy to run the show, but we got someone with a little gravitas. Bailing on in-house talent is still likely under the Monforts — one of the few MLB owners who aren’t billionaires, just hundred-millionaires — but maybe DePod- esta can hold ownership away from another Kris Bryant signing. DePodesta was part of an early wave of Ivy League-trained brains who helped reshape how pro sports are run. Using sabermetrics, a form of data-driven baseball analysis, the Harvard grad relied more on advanced math than traditional MLB scouts — a much bolder proposition in the ‘90s than it is now. Those methods helped DePodesta land an assistant GM gig with the Oakland A’s, which quickly overachieved, and the Moneyball story was born. He was the fi fth-youngest general manager ever in MLB history when the Los Angeles Dodgers hired him in 2004. Then things got a little bumpy. DePodesta was fi red the next year by the Dodgers’ former owner, Frank McCourt (who, to be fair, doesn’t have the best reputation in baseball) after his big-money players got hurt. He then served in front-offi ce roles for the San Diego Padres and New York Mets before surprising the sports world in 2016 by jumping to the NFL as chief strategy offi cer for the Cleveland Browns. He had mixed success, with rosters that were viewed as talented but rarely produced a winning record. His most famous transaction was facilitating a 2022 trade that brought in quarterback DeShaun Watson, to whom the Browns then signed a fully guaranteed deal of $230 million. Since then, Watson has been a mix of injured and whack. But before that, he was also an alleged creep, accused by multiple Houston-area massage therapists of sexual crimes and mis- conduct. (Watson has NEWS continued on page 6 KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS Alli Jackson is a new face on Aurora City Council. AURORA CIT Y COUNCIL
