More than 100 people attended the La Plata County Democratic Caucus and Assembly that took place in a virtual Zoom meeting on Saturday. County Democrats selected who they want to see on the ballots for local elections and the 2022 Senate and House of Representatives primaries.
The virtual meeting differed from traditional caucuses most notably in that discussions weren’t held among Democratic Party members before voting for candidates.
At least one caucus attendee, Hether Ayres, was disappointed with the structure of the virtual event. She said caucuses she’s attended during the last 15 years have always hosted in-person discussion about candidates and issues.
She said the lack of discussion was “undemocratic.”
Anne Markward, a member of the La Plata County Democrats’ communications team, said “COVID is undemocratic.”
Videos of the various candidates were distributed before the Saturday event that was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
La Plata County Democrats voted to place Donald Valdez and Sol Sandoval on the June primary ballot for the 3rd Congressional District race and overwhelmingly supported returning U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet to the ballot. Valdez received 47 votes and Sandoval received 51 votes. Bennet received 103 out of 111 votes.
Residents also created teams of delegations to support candidates at three upcoming assemblies April 8-9: the Colorado State Assembly for U.S. senators and the state-level offices of governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and CU Regent; the U.S. Congressional Assembly for the House of Representatives; and the Colorado Multi-County Assembly for House District 59 statehouse representatives.
Six resolutions were approved that aim to address issues ranging from equity in education in regard to funding and academic inclusion, to funding a threatened and endangered species program.
Caucuses generally consist of dialogue between party members about candidates and issues, but discussion wasn’t part of the plan during Saturday’s caucus and assembly. Herb Bowman, the event emcee, said time for discussion about candidates would be available before the April assemblies.
La Plata County nominations for local elections included Clyde Church for another term on the La Plata County Board of County Commissioners; Sean Smith for a third term as La Plata County sheriff; Allison Aichele for another term as the La Plata County treasurer and public trustee; and Carrie Woodson for another term of service as the La Plata County assessor.
Jean Walter said she nominated Church because of his eye for details and how he represents the interests of La Plata County on the Board of County Commissioners.
“For me, it’s Clyde’s dedication and devotion to the Library Advisory Board, of which I’m also a member,” she said. “Clyde’s been great.”
Church said he wants to support attainable housing and address homelessness in La Plata County. He also wants to form strategic partnerships to spend $10.9 million in COVID-19 recovery money, which he said has become a more complicated process because of the new federal infrastructure bill.
Sarah Jacobsen said Smith is a “natural leader” with “unparalleled” passion.
“The Sheriff’s Office has the largest budget of any county department,” she said. “He is super smart and he knows the details of every line item in his $18.8 million budget. By focusing on efficient operations and fiscal responsibility, he has innovated processes to save taxpayers literally hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
She also credited Smith with taking the initiative in purchasing lifesaving surplus emergency equipment “with zero to little cost to taxpayers.” She praised the Sheriff’s Office for its ability to keep in-house COVID-19 cases low through most of the pandemic and for the successful murder conviction of Mark Redwine, who was found guilty of killing his son, Dylan.
Smith said he is happy he is running for a third term as sheriff rather than pursuing a potential role as the United States marshal of Colorado.
Aichele, La Plata County treasurer and public trustee, is responsible for much of the tech and systems modernization that has taken place in the Treasurer’s Office, said Susan Hakanson.
“This is not just an office manager or a policy position,” she said. “Allison serves as a high-level financial professional overseeing the movement of over $175 million a year in over 50,000 transactions.”
Angela Fountain, who nominated Carrie Woodson to campaign for another term as La Plata County assessor, said Woodson has 25 years of experience in the Assessor’s Office and three as the assessor.
“... She has shown great skill in being an outstanding leader, including orchestrating the entire staff to work from home during the height of the COVID shutdown,” Fountain said. “And they were all still able to do outstanding service for our community.”
La Plata County Democrats also supported six resolutions:
- Resolution No. 1: Adequate and equitable funding of public education in Colorado.
- Resolution No. 2: Inclusive education, a fact-based curriculum, academic freedom and free speech in conversations about America’s history.
- Resolution No. 3: Recognition of Colorado educational professionals for their efforts to support children during the pandemic and reorganizing teacher evaluations to remove standardized test scores, reduce frequency of evaluations for effective teachers and decrease the amount of evaluation documentation required.
- Resolution No. 4: Eliminating the Colorado caucus process by changing from a bifurcated primary caucus system to a single primary ballot system for all races in the mid-term and general elections.
- Resolution 5: That Colorado supports full funding for the threatened and endangered species list.
- Resolution 6: An online discussion forum for “reinvigorating constructive political dialogue, by Democrats, for Democrats” to strengthen grassroots efforts.
cburney@durangoherald.com
