{"id":100488,"date":"2018-04-11T20:16:11","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T02:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/da-furse-seeks-ballot-question-to-extend-term-limit\/"},"modified":"2018-04-11T20:16:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T02:16:11","slug":"da-furse-seeks-ballot-question-to-extend-term-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/da-furse-seeks-ballot-question-to-extend-term-limit\/","title":{"rendered":"DA Furse seeks ballot question to extend term limit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Furse\"
Furse<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Should term limits be extended for the district attorney?<\/p>\n

The question could make the November ballot at the request of Will Furse, district attorney for the 22nd Judicial District, representing Montezuma and Dolores counties.<\/p>\n

The district attorney currently is limited to two consecutive four-year terms. Furse was elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2016. His second term is up in 2020, and he is interested in running for a third consecutive term. He needs voter approval in Montezuma and Dolores counties to extend the term limit.<\/p>\n

Furse said he feels voters should be given the opportunity to re-elect their district attorney if that is their choice. He said that if he\u2019s allowed to run for a third term and re-elected, the community would benefit from \u201ccontinuity and experience\u201d in the office and allow successful programs to continue long-term.<\/p>\n

During his terms, Furse said, he implemented a districtwide grand jury system, expanded juvenile and adult diversion programs and supported pretrial services. He said one-third of Colorado judicial districts have extended term limits for district attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt promotes stability in the office and gives assurances to staff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Commissioners Keenan Ertel and James Lambert supported Furse\u2019s request for a ballot question asking voters to extend the term limit. Furse would still need to run as a candidate for the position.<\/p>\n

Ertel said he is against all term limits, and suggested a ballot question eliminating all of them for elected county officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cTerm limits can be very destructive,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had a great assessor (Mark Vanderpool) who was at the peak of his game, but was forced out by term limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ertel called term limits \u201carbitrary imposition\u201d for local communities, and said that every election, voters have the opportunity to limit an elected official\u2019s time in office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can be voted in or out in every election cycle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Lambert said he is OK with term limits, but he supported extending the district attorney\u2019s from two terms to three terms.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Larry Don Suckla said he wants to find out how Dolores County feels about Furse\u2019s request before making his decision.<\/p>\n

Other term limits for Montezuma County officials are: Three four-year terms for assessor, clerk, treasurer and sheriff; two four-year terms for county commissioner, and two four-year terms for district attorney.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montezuma County commissioners give initial support<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,133,13,308,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-courts","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-elections","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100488"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}