{"id":127691,"date":"2026-05-05T19:05:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gop-candidates-for-montezuma-county-commissioner-square-off-in-debate\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T19:05:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:05:49","slug":"gop-candidates-for-montezuma-county-commissioner-square-off-in-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gop-candidates-for-montezuma-county-commissioner-square-off-in-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP candidates for Montezuma County commissioner square off in debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Republican
Republican candidates for Montezuma County commissioner debate Monday evening at the Chamber of Commerce in Cortez. The debate, hosted by the County Republican Central Committee, consisted of three 30-minute rounds, followed by a mingling session. The first round featured moderator-led questions devised by the committee, while the second allowed candidates to question and respond to each other. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Republican candidates for Montezuma County commissioner laid out competing visions on taxes, land use and transparency Monday during a debate at the Cortez Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

The debate between Bonnie Anderson, Diane Fox-Spratlen and Rodney Cox offered voters side-by-side comparisons of how each candidate would approach key issues, including a potential sales tax, property rights and state mandates.<\/p>\n

The seat will be determined this November, but the Republican primary for June 30 will decide who takes the GOP ticket in a heavily led conservative area.<\/p>\n

The event, hosted by the Montezuma County Republican Central Committee, drew a crowd of more than 60 \u2013 made up of local party members who chatted, laughed and hugged before the debate was called to order by acting chair Bob Ower. Ower and secretary Cindy Wallace served as timekeepers, making sure candidates stayed in bounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOK, everybody excited?\u201d Ower began as he introduced the evening moderator.<\/p>\n

Open calls for \u201ccivil discourse\u201d were made from moderator Sara Broersma, a retired schoolteacher from Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1, who taught American Government for three decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome you to listen to their very candid debate tonight. Let\u2019s all make sure we have a good dialogue tonight,\u201d she said. Her initial inquiries \u2013 \u201cCandidates, are we ready? Audience, are we ready?\u201d \u2013 were met with a resounding yes.<\/p>\n

\"The
The crowd was made up of the local Republican Party cohort. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The first of three rounds followed a Q&A format, with questions devised beforehand by the committee and each candidate provided with time to respond. The second round allowed for sharper back-and-forth, as candidates posed questions directly to each other.<\/p>\n

They aligned on how core responsibilities of commissioner entail budgeting and oversight of roughly two-dozen county departments. They differed on the approach.<\/p>\n

Anderson, the first to answer the question, \u201cWhat do commissioners actually do?\u201d added an emphasis on collaboration and public access, saying communication and transparency must be restored.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a newcomer, I would do office hours,\u201d she said. \u201cMy job is to listen to the people. I think it is the ultimate thing we are lacking right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox framed commissioners as a \u201cfinancial checkpoint\u201d and advocate at higher levels of government, criticizing federal PILT funding. He also emphasized eagerness to build relationships with the two other commissioners, other elected officials and department directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeek first to understand,\u201d he said, adding the desire to know what the public needs.<\/p>\n

Fox-Spratlen pointed to duties defined within state statute, stressing policy, administration and advocacy at the state Capitol. She said if elected, she plans to build relationships with the commissioners whom she already has experience working with.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role is to shut up and listen. I am very big on relationships and collaboration, bringing people to the table to solve problems,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Candidates largely agreed property rights should remain central but diverged on specific applications. Fox-Spratlen said she believes priority rights are \u201cparamount,\u201d that the land-use code was \u201cnarrow,\u201d which is important and appropriate.<\/p>\n

Cox said the proposed Dollar General project may be legally justified but undesirable for its neighbors. He warned against expanding government through blight regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the blight or the rubbish commissioners are talking about, I think it\u2019s a can of worms: Once you get talking about it, you will never get finished,\u201d he said. \u201cI like my tractors, I like them on my land. I see that as growing the government, and I am not a fan of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson echoed Fox-Spratlen \u2013 saying the \u201cshorter the better\u201d\u2013 in regard to the land-use code. She reflected on a need for the county to update its comprehensive plan from the 1990s era, especially regarding values around new industries, such as solar farms.<\/p>\n

\"The
The third round was driven by crowd participation, giving attendees a chance to write questions on slips of paper as they arrived Monday evening. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

There was a small dispute over transparency. Anderson called for more communication while Cox defended current commissioners as transparent. There was a pointed exchange when Cox questioned Anderson about past criticism of county leadership and staff, which she denied criticizing staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransparency is not easy; it\u2019s a full-time job. If you follow me on Facebook, it\u2019s exhausting,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Cox said he\u2019s spent time attending after-hours meetings to become more familiar with local issues, including school board meetings in Dolores and the Planning and Zoning Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of time. \u2026 The only people I haven\u2019t seen during the after-hour meetings are you guys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a different response, Fox-Spratlen, as a former police officer, said her priorities lie with raising retention and pay for Sheriff\u2019s Office deputies. She said the financial and operational assessment of the Sheriff\u2019s Office by KRW Associates, provided in March 2025, is a detailed and actionable guide.<\/p>\n

\u201cFighting that fight. \u2026 It takes a great deal of time and energy, and I have both,\u201d Fox-Spratlen said.<\/p>\n

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

Republicans discuss taxes, land use and government openness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[28,308,109,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-127691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-local-elections","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127691","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=127691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127691"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=127691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}