GarCo endorsements
It’s a dramatically pivotal election year both nationally and locally. Locally, I will be voting for two county commissioners who will not be partisan, who will not have their own agenda, who will represent and listen to their constituents in their districts despite differences on issues and party lines. I will vote to honor the newly passed SB24-216 Colorado law to protect our libraries regarding book banning. I will vote for candidates who respect the Garfield County Public Library District (GCPLD) Board of Trustees to do their jobs rather than disrespect and undermine them. Last week, GCPLD Board President Adrian Rippy-Sheehy was named Outstanding Library Trustee of the Year by the Colorado Association of Libraries. How amazing is that?
I will be voting for the two candidates who will be strong leaders, welcome diversity and bring very long needed changes to the office of county commissioners. Caitlin Carey and Steven Arauza have my vote!
Amy Krakow
Carbondale
Vote for Samson
I am writing this letter in favor of Mike Samson’s reelection bid for Garfield County Commissioner. Mike is one of the three Garfield commissioners who are responsible for the county having $86 million in the bank, making GARCO one of the five most financially healthy counties in the country (out of 3,244).
Mike’s focus is on protecting our water, our environment and our public lands. Mike also understands we need sensible immigration policies.
Mike is accountable and is a non-partisan listener who understands that the government serves people — not policies.
I urge you to vote for Mike Samson for GarCo commissioner.
Lori Andrews
Carbondale
Unfit and unhinged
JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate for vice president, once stated, “Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office,” in an op-ed published by the New York Times in 2016. Apparently, Sen. Vance has changed his mind on Trump’s fitness to serve as president. But I think his original appraisal was correct.
There are countless reasons not to vote for Donald Trump, but it essentially boils down to this: he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power for the first time in our nation’s modern history because he refused to accept the results of a free and fair election that he lost. In my opinion, Trump’s incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and siege of the Capitol, plus additional plots in a failed coup to remain in office by trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election is tantamount to treason and makes him ineligible to ever hold any position of power in the United States again. Maybe I’m an old school kind of patriot, but I think attempting to overthrow the government in order to stay in power is disqualifying as far as being a candidate to seek the office of president again. Full stop. End of story.
Vote Harris/Walz to preserve democracy and move America forward. Put Trump, who Vance once said, might be “America’s Hitler,” in America’s rearview mirror.
JM Jesse
Glenwood Springs
Housing a concern?
Is housing a concern for you? Don’t you want to vote for someone who shares your concern?
The City of Rifle and Habitat For Humanity are collaborating on a wonderful project to create a modular home production facility. The facility will enable Habitat to build more affordable housing here in the county and also serve as a workforce training center to train local high school students in the latest digital construction technology. In 2023, they applied for a federal grant for the project, and asked the county commissioners to provide a letter of support.
The commissioners refused. Commissioner Mike Samson, who is now running for re-election, said he had “mixed feelings” about the project because he prefers single family homes to apartments and condos. “I don’t want somebody living on the other side of the wall of me — above me, below me and to the side of me. I like my house,” he stated at the Feb. 27, 2023 meeting.
This is just one example that shows how out of touch Samson is with his constituents. Who wouldn’t prefer a single family home?! The point is, there are way too many families and essential workers in our county who can’t afford any form of housing.
Steven Arauza understands our housing crisis and wants to help those affected by it. Vote for Steven Arauza and give him the opportunity to bring smart leadership to our Board of County Commissioners.
Wendy Stewart
Carbondale
Please vote
Wow! The number of new registered voters is amazing, Thank You! Let’s continue the positive energy on the national level to our local elections. It’s time to give younger and new candidates a chance at the county commissioner level and beyond in Garfield and Pitkin counties. Out with the old in with the new. Our state has changed so much in the last several years: population, demographics, ways tax dollars are generated. Let’s embrace fresh visions instead of the same ole same ole to tackle many issues that the same ole can’t seem to solve. Let’s also have transparency in the political ads and please show a current picture of yourself, not one from many years ago! It’s only right to see who we are voting for. Please vote. It does make a difference.
John Busscher
Carbondale
We are of immigrants
Where did your brave ancestors originate?
Unless an American is Native American (about 2.9% of the U.S. population), he or she is descended from immigrants. Where did your family roots originate? I am the lucky descendent of immigrants from many countries: Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal and Brazil. I came to the US as a baby with my American father and my Brazilian mother. How about you?
Would you deny your ancestors the chance this country gave them for work, safety and citizenship? The opportunity that made your life possible? It took courage for all of our ancestors to leave home and cross oceans and/or borders to make new homes and lives for their descendents. My mother had to give up her career as a dentist because her education was in Brazil and not recognized here, but she contributed her talents in many other ways including teaching Spanish for many years at Colorado Mountain College.
Immigrants now are the people caring for the elderly and sick as health aids in many nursing facilities. They are changing the beds in most hotel rooms in this Valley and cooking in the restaurants, washing the dishes. They are building the houses, fixing the cars and mowing the lawns. When Ellis Island began in 1892 as the landing point for immigrants coming mostly from the landless poor in Europe, those people became workers sewing clothes, cleaning houses and offices, digging in coal mines and working in the burgeoning industrial revolution in many capacities.The Pevec part of my name comes from Slovenia: coal miners, factory workers and farmers.
Our country is built and enriched by each person who comes and shares their personal talents and labor. Allowing people to get work permits more easily than we do now would decrease stress for these immigrants and the costs to our national budget of immigration workers reviewing the vast paperwork necessary for a person to get permission to work. Welcoming immigrants instead of accusing them of stealing jobs and eating pets would make for a kinder country for us all. Let’s try uniting for mutual respect and kindness in cultural diversity we can all share in and enjoy.
Illène Pevec
Carbondale
The economy didn’t work, let’s try immigration
The GOP planned to run on the economy and immigration in 2024. Well, the economy is booming. Inflation is down to 2.5%, low enough for the Republican chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, to cut interest rates by a full half a percent.
Unemployment is at 4.2%. The definition of full employment is anything below 4.7%. Every economist’s favorite measure, the growth of the gross national product, is humming along at 3%. And the stock market, not the best measure of the health of the economy since only the rich have the extra funds to invest in it, is setting records.
This has caused the MAGA men to revise their strategy. Better drill down on immigration. Let’s harp on the repeated claims that undocumented immigrants are bringing crime and drugs into the country.
When it comes to crime statistics, I depend on the FBI. They’re not all agents, you know. Many of them sit at a desk and crunch numbers. They’re telling us the crime rate among immigrants is lower than that of citizens. Further, fentanyl isn’t coming into the country with immigrants through the desert, but through legal ports of entry by American citizens or Mexican nationals who have a legal right to be here.
The ticket’s frustration on this issue was revealed when Ohio senator, and vice-presidential candidate, J.D. Vance invented the absurd lie that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating their neighbors’ pets. Vance has as much as admitted he made it all up, but justified it by saying he needed to make his constituents aware they’re cats and dogs are in danger.
These words have caused quite the kerfuffle in Springfield with bomb threats at schools and public cultural events being canceled. Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has rejected Vance’s fantasy.
Closer to home, Aurora’s MAGA Mayor Mike Coffman played a role in starting the rumor that Venezuelan gangs have taken over an apartment building in that city. It could be his attempt to explain why he’s had such a difficult time controlling crime in Aurora. The mayor has gone through seven police chiefs in five years.
Coffman has since backed off on his takeover message and police chief Kevin Barnes said there are Venezuelan gangs in Aurora, but they aren’t in control of anything.
Fred Malo Jr.
Carbondale
Vote red
Joy and hope are warm, cuddly sentiments but these feelings won’t pay for your groceries, gas or mortgage. Caring and compassion are also heart-warming traits but our unbridled open border empathy has resulted in millions of foreign nationals taking tax dollars away from the poorest of U.S. citizens. Rehabilitation and second chances are audible ideologies but no-bail laws and defund police policies have massively increased violent crime. We had peace through strength, now we seek non-escalation of wars through appeasement. We’ve become reactive rather than proactive, sending signals of weakness across the globe. Please, vote on facts with your brain instead of feelings with your heart. Vote a straight Republican ticket. If you’re better off now than four years ago, you are probably a recent illegal arrival.
Bruno Kirchenwitz
Rifle
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