I hope I’ve clearly defined what I mean by a conceptual map of Pagosa Springs — “Pagosa Springs” meaning the full-time residents of Archuleta County who work and shop and worship and find entertainment mainly within the Town limits. 85% of these residents do not live within the Town boundaries and cannot vote in Town elections, but most of them, if asked where they live, would no doubt answer “Pagosa Springs.”
I do indeed live within the Town limits and vote regularly in Town elections… but this conceptual map is intended to include folks living in the unincorporated county.
And since we’ve touched on the topic of voting and elections, we’ll take a look at the mapping details I shared at the end of yesterday’s installment, provided by the Archuleta County Clerk’s office:
Republican: Active: 4,274; Inactive: 392
Unaffiliated: Active: 4,147; Inactive: 473
Democrat: Active: 2,203; Inactive: 219
Libertarian: Active: 92; Inactive: 12
American Constitution: Active: 42; Inactive: 4
Green: Active: 27; Inactive: 7
Approval Voting: Active: 5; Inactive: 1
Unity: Active: 4; Inactive: 1
10,794 voters, with about 40% registered as active Republican, about 38% active Unaffiliated, and about 20% active Democrats, plus a few miscellaneous renegades. (“Active” means “voted in the most recent election”.)
There’s a pretty well-documented tendency, among Democrats and Republicans, to blame “the opposite party” for almost everything that’s wrong with America. That tendency is quite evident if you peruse the Letters to the Editor in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN. (The letters don’t actually reveal the author’s political party, so there’s a bit of presumption involved in my claim.)
I’ve not been keeping track of party membership here in Archuleta County, but ten years ago — back in 2010 — we had a general election that included the following results for federal offices:
US Senate
Republican Ken Buck: 2,875 (57%)
Democrat Michael Bennet: 1,952 (39%)
Green Party Macklyn Stringer: 156 (3%)
US House
Republican Scott Tipton: 2,812 (54%)
Democrat John Salazar: 2,174 (42%)
Libertarian Gregory Gilman: 117 (2%)
During the same election, Archuleta County voters considered two property tax increases. Ballot Measure 1A would have increased the taxes going to the County government. Ballot Measure 1B would have increased the property taxes going to the Archuleta County Education Center.
Both proposed tax increases lost by more than a 3-to-1 margin.
Fast forward to 2020, an election with considerably higher voter turnout:
US President
Republican Donald Trump: 5,126 (57%)
Democrat Joe Biden: 3,693 (41%)
Libertarian Jo Jorgensen: 114 (1%)
US Senate
Republican Cory Gardner: 5,162 (58%)
Democrat John Hickenlooper: 3,549 (40%)
Libertarian Raymon Doane: 158 (2%)
US House
Republican Lauren Boebert: 4,982 (57%)
Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush: 3,541 (40%)
Libertarian John Keil: 202 (2%)
Although the Archuleta County turnout at the 2020 election was much higher than in 2010, the respective percentage of won by Republican and Democrat candidates was in the same ballpark. Around 57% for Republicans… and around 41% for Democrats.
Those percentages make it appear that Unaffiliated voters lean slightly — ever so slightly — to the left.
There were no local tax issues on the 2020 ballot, but two years earlier, Archuleta County voters approved a sizable property tax increase for our local (Non-partisan) School District… while rejecting, by a small margin, a sales tax increase proposed by the (Republican) Board of County Commissioners.
Can we draw any conceptual map conclusions, or discern any related details, from these voter numbers? I would hardly think so. Although the median age of our population in 2011 was 37 years (US Census “Five Year Average”) — and was estimated at 51 years in 2019… and although Archuleta County’s median age has now reached 51 years old as reckoned by the US Census “Five Year Average”… and although it was 37 years as recently as 2011… both political parties now consist of older Americans. According to an October 2020 article by Pew Research Center, the average age of a registered Republican is 52 years, while the average age of a registered Democrat is 49 years.
It would appear that young voters tend to register as Unaffiliated, and perhaps tend to vote that way as well.
As we have all seen over especially the past four years — but really, since the 1980s — America has become increasingly polarized, politically, to a point where you might almost say we are two different nations living within the same borders.
Those political divisions seem to play a less important role, however, in local decision-making processes. But maybe they play a small role?
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has long been dominated by Republican commissioners, although we did have a Democrat on the commission (Clifford Lucero) for eight years, and also an Unaffiliated commissioner (Michael Whiting) also for eight years. During the tenure of Mr. Lucero and Mr. Whiting, the County government dug itself out of a near-bankruptcy, brought on when all of the County commissioners were Republicans. The County ended up, after eight years, in a surprisingly stable financial situation with millions of dollars stashed away to help us get through the next Great Recession.
Now that all of the commissioners are again Republicans, those millions of dollars in savings are mostly spent, building a ‘justice center’ complex in Harman Park.
The Pagosa Springs Town Council, meanwhile, is non-partisan. My sense is that the Council tends to see most issues through a “progressive” lens.
But the issues that have caused the most polarization nationally — immigration, climate change, health care costs, racial justice, renewable energy, gun control, voting rights, student debt, religious freedom, COVID restrictions, taxation, fracking — are not generally issues that our local governments weigh in on.
Our local issues typically have more to do with vacation rentals, affordable housing, road maintenance, limited broadband… and of course, now, COVID mask-wearing and vaccinations.
But the BOCC did weigh in, last month, on the subject of access to federal lands, by sending a letter to “For Whom It May Concern”. About 49% of the Archuleta County landscape belongs to the federal government, and the three Republican commissioners wanted to express their objection to HR 803.
To Whom It May Concern:
The Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners is opposed to HR 803, the “Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act…”