And as soon as it ends, campaign season begins again.
Last week, Naomi Riess, a longtime community advocate and business professional, announced her campaign as the Republican candidate for Colorado House District 59.
She would presumably face off with first-term incumbent, Democrat Katie Stewart – assuming Stewart seeks reelection.
After 35 years in the region – raising a family, volunteering extensively in local schools, and running a land use consulting business – Riess said she is ready to bring a practical, common-sense approach to state government.
Her professional background as a land-use consultant has given her a front-row seat to the challenges facing rural communities, she said.
“The level of involvement with government and government programs that are relevant to land use is really extensive,” Riess said. “I’ve run hundreds of projects, helped hundreds of plans successfully through the planning process.”
Her decision to run is motivated by what she sees as overregulation and a lack of rural representation at the state level, she said.
“The application of regulations actively discourages people from having hope that they have economic opportunity,” she said. “I realized that I do have an opportunity for a platform and a voice that can benefit people in Southwest Colorado from the state level.”
A self-described moderate Republican, she emphasized her commitment to representing the whole community and seeking bipartisan solutions.
“I will always represent the whole community. I will always listen, and I will feel compelled to represent the majority,” she said. “I am very moderate, and I mean, I love to live in the gray. There is almost nothing in my life that is truly black and white.”
While drawn to the unique issues within La Plata County, she believes that her political affiliation would make it difficult for her to be elected to local office – like that of county commissioner.
When considering the whole of District 59 – which includes Archuleta, La Plata, Montezuma and San Juan counties – her chances appear much higher, Riess said.
Riess added that, if elected, she would push for legislation that requires counties to decrease regulations. That would help increase affordable housing options in the area, as well as allow people to start simple projects with greater ease and less expense, she said.
When it comes to the state budget, which has taken a series of blows in recent months – including $300 million in cuts following a recent special session – Riess wants to elevate the discussion around wasteful spending.
“My initial impression (of the special session) is that it was deliberately staged to make the federal government look bad, and that the outcome was basically the governor's work,” she said. “… There was no discussion about reducing unnecessary and wasteful government programs. They simply went to cuts.”
Instead, Riess thinks funds should be distributed to existing, functional programs, not directed toward new ones. She pointed to the newly created Colorado Office of Financial Empowerment as an example of that.
“How is that helping?” she asked. “There have got to be ways to cut back on the budget.”
And what is Riess interested in besides politics? A lot, she said.
She has spent years on Parent Teacher Organizations for local schools, worked as a 4-H leader, participating in district planning groups and has been the vice chair of the La Plata County Historic Preservation Review Commission for 13 years – just to name a few of her “extracurricular activities.”
Additionally, she is a master gardener, a certified pollinator steward, a notary public and a certified divorce mediator – which was her primary source of income during the 2008 recession.
She specialized in divorces involving children, where she helped people create co-parenting plans before embarking on any financial separation.
“It was heart-wrenching work. It's very difficult. I had lived it myself,” she said. “When my ex-husband and I got divorced, the first thing we did was our co-parenting plan.”
It allowed her son to stay largely unaffected by his parent’s private disagreements.
Her own experience and work in divorce court tie into the broader message of her campaign: healthy communities, healthy families and healthy individuals.
“The definition of family is multifaceted,” she said. “I feel strongly that health comes from healthy minds, healthy bodies and strong prevention practices.”
As the campaign season gets underway, Riess wants to encourage more people to engage with the political process.
“I would really like to encourage people to understand how important it is to really, I mean, you don’t have to pay attention to every topic, but to really understand who you’re voting for and why and understand that, yeah, every vote does matter.”
jbowman@durangoherald.com
