“Let us, as a caucus, bind up our wounds and move forward together,” Van Winkle said, alluding to how Democrats in the House won an even larger majority for the next term. Democrats also took control Tuesday of the offices of governor, attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state…
— Article “Colorado Senate Democrats, with their new majority, show early splits,” from the Colorado Sun, November 8, 2018
The Democratic Party caucus in the Colorado Senate will hold a 19-16 majority for the next two years, and 12 of those 19 Democratic legislators will be women. Of the six key Senate leadership positions, four will initially be held by women.
And it currently appears that more women than ever will serve in the Colorado House when the General Assembly reconvenes on January 4. Of the 65 members in the chamber, 33 will be women. (A couple of races have not yet been officially called, however, as far as I can tell.)
That doesn’t necessarily mean that anything wonderful will result. It’s really just some mathematical numbers. In my (admittedly limited) experience, women can make just as many mistakes as men can, and I have no doubt our newly constituted Colorado General Assembly will make its share of mistakes over the next two years.
Our new Governor, Jared Polis, will have the ability to veto those mistakes, as part of the “checks and balances” built into the state’s Constitution. Sometimes, however, when the Governor and both houses of the General Assembly are controlled by the same political party, the power of the Governor’s veto sees minimal use. That remains to be seen.
And while Governor Polis is not a woman, he is at least openly gay.
But how are the women doing, locally? Here in Pagosa Springs?
Let’s see. Natalie Woodruff was re-elected as our County Assessor, running unopposed. Kristy Archuleta, who also ran unopposed, will assume the helm as County Clerk & Recorder from June Madrid. Republican Elisa White won the County Treasurer job, beating her female opponent Debbie Condrey, who ran as a Democrat.
All of those jobs have been held by women for the past 20 years. In my opinion, women tend to handle “clerk-type” jobs better than men do, and Assessor, Treasurer and Clerk are definitely “clerk-type” jobs. No offense meant.
The other County jobs that were on the 2018 ballot — one County Commissioner seat, the Sheriff, the Coroner, the Surveyor — were won by men. Three males ran for the Sheriff’s position, with incumbent Rich Valdez winning easily.
4,750 votes for the District 3 County Commissioner seat went to Republican Alvin Schaff; his write-in opponent, Democrat Lizzie Dickerson, managed to gather 138 votes.
The County positions with the most political power are the County Commissioners, who — here in Colorado — serve both the legislative and executive functions. You might say, if you were so inclined, that there are no “checks and balances” in play in our County government.
I’ve attended my fair share of Archuleta Board of County Commissioners meetings over the past 14 years, as a Daily Post reporter. Well, actually, a lot more than my fair share. And I’ve seen women and men seated on the dais.
One of the very first articles we ran in the Daily Post, back in 2004, was written by local activist Addi Greer, about an unusual situation here in Archuleta County. Two Republican women had just been elected to the Board of County Commissioners: Ronnie Zaday and Robin Schiro. And we already had a woman holding the third seat: Democrat Mamie Lynch.
As of January 2005, we were going to have an all-female BOCC.
I don’t know if this was the first time in Archuleta County’s century-long history that all three County Commissioner seats had been occupied by women. I do know that I had never worked as a journalist prior to 2004, and that I knew very little about local government.
That particular all-female BOCC was a trial by fire for a budding journalist. You would have been hard pressed to find three people with less ability to get along. Especially the two Republicans — Schiro and Zaday — seemed completely unable to find any kind of compromise solution on any decision whatsoever, or to act with civility towards one another.
We might also note that, under the guidance of three female commissioners, the County government nearly went bankrupt.
Compared to the dysfunctional BOCC I observed from 2005 through 2009, our current BOCC is a love fest. But just because politicians know how to get along with one another, doesn’t mean they make decisions that are good for the community. (More about that in Part Three.)
Looking at some other local government boards, we will note that the Archuleta School District Board of Education has, for the past few years, consisted of four men and one woman. One seat is currently vacant. Any women out there willing to apply?
From a Pagosa Springs SUN article by Chris Mannara:
Interested parties from District 2 are invited to send letters to the BOE with qualifications by 3pm on December 21 and the BOE will be holding interviews with prospective candidates at a work session on January 8 at 5pm at the Pagosa Springs High School auditorium.
Letters of intent should be delivered to Executive Secretary Robyn Bennett at the District Office at 309 Lewis St.; by email to rbennett@ pagosa.k12.co.us; or by mail to: Executive Assistant Robyn Bennett, PO Box 1498, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147.
The letters of intent should address the following questions:
1.Why do you want to be on the board?
2. Do you plan on running for the position once your term expires in November of 2019?
3. What is your philosophy of education as it relates to serving on the board?
Here are a couple of maps showing the ASD Board Districts. District 2 is shown in light blue.
You can learn more about the vacancy here on the ASD website.
The Town Council currently consists of five men and two women, and wins my “editor’s pick” as the smartest, most functional government board in the community.
As I mentioned in Part One, there are two key elements to citizen participation in government — which apply equally to men and women. You have to be willing, and have the ability, to vote.
And candidates have to be willing, and have the ability, to run for office.
When the candidates on the ballot are worthless choices, you vote is equally worthless.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.