Lisa Ann Jacobs

Lisa Ann Jacobs already has a list of degrees and titles, but she’s looking for at least a few more. She’s running for Mayor of Boulder in 2026, and says she’d like to take it another step farther by running for Governor of Colorado into the future.

According to Jacobs, a Colorado State Patrol trooper asked her to run because the City of Boulder and State of Colorado have so many problems. She has M.D. and M.P.H. degrees, and said doctors told her that their taxes are “way too high.” She added that Boulder residents asked her to run, saying she was a “very special person” who would be a better Mayor and better Governor than who the city and state has now.

Q – What Do You See as the Role of the Mayor?

During a late September live interview, Jacobs said beyond the well-established technical roles of the Mayor, those who hold the role should meet technicalities of the law, listen, and basically “take care of everybody.” She said Council should not go into executive session without legally required notice; that protestors should be heard and respected; that Council should follow the “will of the people” as opposed to the wishes of the City Manager and City Attorney; and local businesses should be able to operate without the fear of being taxed out of existence.

“So, we don’t have all the money in the world to do special programs that some people love, and others object to. We have great anxiety of the unknown, where our homeowners are going to bed not knowing if they can pay their taxes. Our small business owners go to bed, not knowing if they can pay their rent. That’s a real psychiatric injury,” she said.

Q – How Would You As Mayor Handle Contentious Meetings?

In 2025, some Council meetings got heated as protestors demonstrated against the situation in Gaza. According to Jacobs, her intent would be to contact world leaders and ask for them to hold a peace summit. She said “great emotional distress” has spilled over into the Boulder community as a result of violence and international conflict. “Wars have consequences to negatively impact communities all around the world, with political discussion, debate and antagonism that can erupt into violence,” she said. Jacobs would like to see the city host a website that’s open to First Amendment-protected speech and input from residents, excepting hate speech and threats of violence, but added that “the people” deserve a voice in Council Chambers. “The people must be heard. They must be respected, and there must be sensitivity to their needs,” said Jacobs.

Mini-Bio

(Editor’s Note: We did not discuss personal history during our live interview, so what’s below is condensed from an email.)

Jacobs graduated from Bowdoin College (in Maine) with Magna Cum Laude general honors with a double majors in history and romance languages.  She also received Magna Cum Laude honors in History. She speaks English, French, and Spanish.

She subsequently pursued medical education at Boston University School of Medicine and the University of Liège School of Medicine, where she earned her M.D. with Honors. She did Internal Medicine training at Albany Medical Center in Albany in New York.

Jacobs earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado, and also studied at Columbia University School of Public Health. She was on faculty at the Columbia University School of Public Health, and was a Principal Investigator of a grant that she wrote to obtain funding from the Pfizer pharmaceutical company.  She enrolled in MBA courses and law school, but did not complete degrees in either discipline.

She attended the American Academy of Real Estate, and is a licensed real estate broker who has had her own real estate brokerage. She is the President of the Colorado Tenant Association LLC and the President of the Colorado Event Association LLC.

Her campaign website is https://lisaannjacobs.com/

On The Issues

Q – Does Boulder Need to Continue Pushing for More Housing?

Jacobs said the city does need more housing, but it needs to be “habitable” housing. She said there are existing complexes in Boulder that are not code-compliant and “poorly managed,” and said these complexes need to fixed and brought into compliance. (Editor’s note: she identified two of the complexes by name, but I’m not listing them here because people live there.) She said she’s “generally” opposed to new development, and would rather take care of the people who are here in Boulder already. She does not in general support more middle-income housing in Boulder, and again mentioned that taxes are too high and people are being squeezed out financially. She generally opposes more affordable housing for people with no ties to Boulder that the city won’t be able to support into the future. She also opposes building housing in the city’s Area III parcel near 28th and Jay. “We have too high density of people. And this has harmed negatively peoples’ health. We have road rage. We have people sitting in traffic. We have bad bike accidents, bad car accidents,” she said, adding that she knows doctors who are recommending living in other nearby cities because it’s better for peoples’ health.

Q – Should Boulder Move Toward Greater Reliance on Property Taxes?

According to Jacobs, she’s opposed to increasing property taxes, and said she knows wealthy and middle-class Boulder residents who believe their taxes are already too high, and they’re not sure if they’ll be able to stay here. She gave several examples of ways to obtain city revenue without increasing property taxes: taxing “successful corporate industries” heavily; better code enforcement that includes fines for violators; high-quality grant writing; fundraising; and bringing in tourists through events, conferences, and festivals.

Q – Is Boulder Ready for Sundance?

Jacobs plainly said the city is not ready for Sundance. For example, she said she recently spoke to a group of business owners who needed a theater to be built before the festival began, and it hadn’t been built. She added that the city needs to clean up parts of the city to give a “neat, tidy presentation” of Boulder to its guests and visitors. This includes the University Hill area, where she believes there needs to be less litter from cans, bottles, and cups used for alcoholic beverages, and that the city in general needs to stop allowing smoking of marijuana along sidewalks plus keep tobacco smoking 25 feet from restaurant doors like the law requires.

Q – Status of Homelessness in Boulder and Ideas?

Jacobs said she is “empathetic to the homeless,” but while answering the question above about Sundance she noted that people should not be sleeping on the sidewalks. She added that people might not feel safe walking on these sidewalks due to the risk of infectious disease. Jacobs favored allowing the unhoused to sleep in a few different locations around town from 10 p.m. until 7:00 a.m., including requesting that campers stay in an area of eastern Boulder that’s already where there’s what she called a “huge tent encampment.” She said there aren’t enough beds at the main shelter in town, and favors allowing “chair warming” during cold weather so people could sit in the shelter and avoid hypothermia. “I want the homeless to feel respected and dignified, like all boulder residents should feel,” she said.

(Editor’s Note: During this late September live interview, I didn’t get to some of the same questions I asked other candidates, so I’m adding short answers to some of them, copied or paraphrased from an email I received from Jacobs.)

Q – Downtown Development Authority?

Jacobs said she would have voted to put the DDA on a ballot for DDA voters if she was on Council when they voted. “Our local businesses are an essential part of what makes Boulder special, and we should use every responsible, proven tool available to help them succeed. Downtown Development Authorities have been used successfully across Colorado to invest in downtown districts, strengthen local business, improve public spaces, and attract private investment,” she wrote.

Q – Boulder’s Status on Public Safety?

Jacobs wrote that she opposes the city’s Reimagining Policing plan because “it overlooks our immediate reality: Boulder is dealing with too much crime, response times are lagging, and the department has faced severe issues with accountability, misconduct, and inter-agency coordination.” But she also wrote that she doesn’t want to accept what she calls the “broken status quo.” She wants more out of the Boulder Police Department, including better training, accountability, and cooperation with other law enforcement entities.

Q – Boulder’s Economic Status and Ideas?

Jacobs wrote: “I believe Boulder should have a permitting system that is predictable, timely, transparent, and accountable. Applicants should know what is required, how long the process should take, and who is responsible for making decisions. Projects that meet clear, reasonable standards should not be trapped in an unnecessarily complicated or open-ended process.
That does not mean eliminating thoughtful planning, environmental protections, or meaningful public input. It means making the system work better. We can protect what makes Boulder special while removing unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication.”

2026 Ballot Measures

  • City of Boulder $400 Million Bond Measure: Jacobs opposes this measure, writing “Borrowing up to $400 million would create a long-term financial obligation for residents and businesses, increase pressure on homeowners’ already facing high housing costs, and commit future taxpayers to debt before the full scope, timing, and cost of the projects are clearly established.”
  • City of Boulder Debt Limit Increase: No
  • Boulder County Increase from 3 to 5 Commissioners: No, saying in part that she attended a meeting where a former commissioner spoke and said having a three-person commission keeps their ability to solve problems “nimble,” including in case of emergency.
  • Boulder County Childcare Tax: No
  • City of Boulder Firefighter Collective Bargaining: No
  • City of Boulder Residential Vacancy Tax: No

Follow the Money: As of late September, Jacobs had reported putting in about $240 of her own money to fund the campaign.