Viewpoint: Cast Your Vote for the Best Candidate

 Two weeks ago, District Attorney Jeff Chostner attended a Colorado City Metropolitan District board meeting and fielded questions. I asked him why everyone, in every district, got to vote for all three county commissioners and all of the district 70 board candidates.

 It seems to me like only the voters from the district they are running in should be allowed to vote. I thought it was a Democratic conspiracy to keep control of all of Pueblo County. Chostner shared that it was Colorado law that counties with three commissioners voted for all three. Shoot, another conspiracy that wasn’t.

 Then I read that Garrison Ortiz and Eppie Griego, two of the three commissioners both who ran as Democrats, were publicly censured and removed from the Democratic Central Committee for endorsing Zach Swearingen a Republican.

 The state Democratic party rules require you punish members of the Central Committee if they support a Republican. I called the Pueblo County Republican office and they indicated they would have done the same thing if rolls had been reversed.

 I guess it doesn’t matter who the best person for the job is if you are a party (either party) big wig. That’s to bad, Ortiz and Griego have gotten a lot done for Colorado City/Rye. I’m glad that they don’t let the fact they were both elected as Democrats deny people like the Colorado City Metro Board over $3million for infrastructure. We needed it and they saw the need,- Democratic area or not.

 Although I vote Republican the vast majority of the time, I always try and vote for the best person to fill the office. On page one of this week’s paper, we have a story on a Democrat I voted for four times. 

 In my humble opinion, Kirk Taylor has done an excellent job as the Sheriff of our county. He was one of the first people I met when we moved to Colorado City in 2005. It was at a Rye High School football game. His son played first string center as a senior, I believe. My son, a freshman, was his back-up. One football game we were roaming down the sidelines together and I got a chance to meet him.

 On another occasion I watched him, in full uniform, work the room at a bar on New Year’s Eve. He knew everyone and talked to almost everyone, calling them by name. He encouraged some to make sure they had a ride home; to others he exhibited kindness,  humor, or no non-sense advice based on what he knew about the person. It was proactive law enforcement and it was what law enforcement is all about.

 Over the years because of the newspaper, I have visited with Sheriff Taylor on a number of occasions. He has always been professional, and offered whatever information he could.

 I think it’s pretty cool that someone from little old Rye, Colorado may become a U.S. Marshal soon. And I hope you are proud of the fact he is from our neck of the woods whether you vote Democrat or Republican all of the time.

 I guess I’ll never be a member of the Republican Central Committee, or whatever it is called. I believe the privilege I have to vote shouldn’t be squandered on someone because of party affiliation. It should be gifted to the best person to do the job.

 So, to get my vote, I prefer that you be pro-gun, anti-abortion, cool to global warming, believe in oil production in the United States for the United States, pro law enforcement, pro-military, and I’d love you to be a Christian.   If you have all of that I don’t care if you have a D or an R after your name. You’ve got my vote.