Friday’s editorial in this space urged the Democratic Party to name, for the sake of adding different values and perspectives to the La County Commission, a Republican to succeed Clyde Church for the 18 months until the result of the November 2026 election. Church announced his resignation this week in order to more fully aid his wife, Paulette, recover from knee surgery.
Mid-morning Friday, the chair of the county Democratic Party, Teal Lehto, forwarded a copy of the state statute that says that a successor must be of the same party as the individual who is vacating the position. So, no argument, no Republican can succeed a Democrat.
Thanks for the civics lesson.
That rule now has us thinking more broadly: make it possible for the member of any party to be named as a successor when a vacancy occurs. An especially promising individual for commissioner, in this case, could be the member of a minor party, or, more likely, unaffiliated. Unaffiliateds are increasing in number and as a percentage of registered voters in Colorado and in other states.
Admittedly, any legislative broadening is unlikely. The two major political parties position themselves to continue in power and we don’t expect them to agree to something that could take anything away from that. Ask an unaffiliated candidate who has to collect signatures, even if they’re an incumbent running again, and that they are prevented by statute from appearing first on the ballot.
Adding political breadth and diversity to a board has its challenges.
