The candidates who won or lost their races in Denver’s municipal election weren’t the only winners and losers Tuesday.

Winners

Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb shows his clout.

Webb hasn’t been in office since 2003, but he showed his influence by helping Councilman Michael Hancock’s campaign for mayor catch fire.

Hancock was running a solid third before Webb endorsed him and brought his impressive get-out-the-vote machine into the game. By the final days, Hancock was driving his “Ballot Bus” around Denver and outraising all of his competitors.

School reformers will have a friend in the mayor’s office.

Both candidates for mayor in the June 7 runoff, Chris Romer and Hancock, see nearly eye-to-eye on education reform. In a survey conducted by Education Reform Now and several other reform groups in March, Romer and Hancock gave similar answers to almost every one of the 28 questions.

In ranking their educational priorities, they both believe in increasing accountability for low-performing schools, expanding the number of high-performing district and charter schools, and rewarding and holding educators responsible for student results.

James Mejia, who questioned Denver Public Schools’ reforms in the far northeast and who had the support of the teachers union, came in third.

Carol Boigon comes out on top.

Boigon quit the mayoral race April 18 after a Denver Post/9News poll found her in fifth place behind Romer, Hancock, Mejia and Doug Linkhart.

After she bowed out, she threw her support behind Hancock, giving him another huge boost after Webb’s endorsement.

Considering that Boigon likely would have gotten more than 5,000 votes, her endorsement surely brought some of her supporters to Hancock’s campaign. Hancock beat out Mejia for the runoff by 1,491 votes.

Dennis Gallagher and Debbie Ortega were biggest vote-getters.

Gallagher in the auditor’s race got more votes than any other candidate in the city contest. Gallagher nabbed 63,280 votes and 66.8 percent of the vote against two challengers, cruising to a win for his third term.

Debbie Ortega, a past councilwoman, won a commanding victory in the at-large council race, collecting 46,846 votes — more than either of the top two vote-getters in the mayor’s race.

Losers

Does the low turnout indicate apathy or dissatisfaction with all mail-in voting?

Roughly 38 percent of registered voters who received ballots in the mail voted. Pundits deliberated over whether that was because of apathy or a boring race.

The percentage is lower than in recent years, but more people total voted this year than in 2007, when John Hickenlooper was running for his second term. That contest brought out only 80,765 voters.

The 2003 race was the most recent municipal election to elect a new mayor. In that race, 46.85 percent of voters returned ballots. The total number of voters was 114,492, almost the same as this year.

Votes don’t come cheap in the mayor’s race.

Romer, through last Thursday, spent about $1.4 million on his successful campaign, which turns out to be about $43 a vote. Hancock spent about $711,489, which equals about $23 per vote.

Theresa Spahn spent $108,288 but got only 3,332 votes, roughly $32.50 a vote. Councilman Doug Linkhart had spent $152,199 through last Thursday on his campaign that received a total of 10,557 votes, about $14.41 per vote. Viewed this way, the biggest winner was probably Thomas Wolf, who dubbed himself the “free candidate” because he accepted no money and spent only $250. He got 2,106 votes, about 12 cents a vote.

Police Chief Gerry Whitman is likely out after July.

Romer and Hancock have said they will replace Whitman when they assume power.

Aliens lost out on having a faithful leader.

Jeff Peckman continues to push Denver into the stratosphere to no avail. Peckman, who pushed an unsuccessful initiative to create a UFO commission, also lost out on becoming mayor. Compiled by Jeremy P. Meyer, The Denver Post; Denver Post file photos