{"id":15306,"date":"2025-12-01T16:21:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T23:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/diane-fox-spratlen-latest-to-declare-montezuma-county-commissioner-run\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:46:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:46:38","slug":"diane-fox-spratlen-latest-to-declare-montezuma-county-commissioner-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/diane-fox-spratlen-latest-to-declare-montezuma-county-commissioner-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Diane Fox-Spratlen latest to declare Montezuma County Commissioner run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Diane
Diane Fox-Spratlen, a former Cortez police officer and current victim\/witness specialist at the 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office, shared her candidacy with The Journal in mid-November. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Diane Fox-Spratlen, a former Cortez Police Department school resource officer under the late Chief Roy Lane, is the latest candidate to enter the Montezuma County commissioner race.<\/p>\n

Fox-Spratlen, a registered Republican, recently announced her candidacy for a seat on the Montezuma County Board of Commissioners.<\/p>\n

A former police officer and current victim\/witness specialist for the 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office, Fox-Spratlen is the third candidate to declare, following Brett Likes<\/a> and Bonnie Anderson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a public servant at heart and that\u2019s what I was made to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She told The Journal <\/em>in mid-November that she plans to run for the District 1 seat held by Jim Candelaria.<\/p>\n

Candelaria\u2019s two-term limit ends in November 2026. He was elected in 2018<\/a>, and reelected in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The other two commissioners remain in office.<\/p>\n

District 2 Commissioner Kent Lindsay was reelected in 2024<\/a> after a 2020 term, having served from 1997 to 2005. District 3 Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer was elected in 2024 <\/a>after serving two terms from 2004 to 2012.<\/p>\n

\u2018Figuring out who you are outside of law enforcement\u2019<\/div>\n

Fox-Spratlen\u2019s background combines law enforcement, community service and advocacy.<\/p>\n

She joined the Cortez Police Department in 1993 and served for two decades, mostly as a school resource officer. She also served on the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 school board and the Cortez Fire Protection District board.<\/p>\n

She said her time in law enforcement underscored the need for unity among departments and community involvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollaboration in a small town is so key, especially when crisis happens,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fox-Spratlen served under the late Chief Roy Lane<\/a>, recognized by Gov. Jared Polis as Colorado\u2019s longest-serving police chief.<\/p>\n

After leaving the Cortez department, she worked several jobs, including a brief stint in the corporate world and security roles in Las Vegas. While there, she also worked for a domestic violence hotline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a live phone advocate, I was just taking call after call about domestic violence pretty much eight hours a day. And I loved that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in Cortez, she spent about a year with Renew, a local domestic violence resource center. In March, she joined the 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office as a victim\/witness specialist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be able to help guide those folks through that criminal justice system, because it can be pretty scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life after law enforcement is an adjustment, she said, calling it \u201ca process of reinventing yourself and figuring out who you are outside of law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her next chapter has focused on public service, modeled by her father, Don Davis, a former Rio Blanco County commissioner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe taught me this: that there\u2019s nothing better that you can do in this life than to serve something bigger than yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

If elected, she said her priority would be advocating for resources for Montezuma County, which she called often overlooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s imperative that we stay engaged at the state level and we fight for what we need down here, or you\u2019re not going to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalled speaking with a state representative while on the school board who mistakenly thought Cortez was in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

She said engagement with state officials remains essential \u201cso that they understand what our needs are down here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving somebody that is a strong leader that can take that voice and go back to the Capitol, and fight for what needs to happen in Montezuma County; I know that I can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was updated Dec. 10 to include Fox-Spratlen\u2019s party affiliation.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fox-Spratlen was a school resource officer with the Cortez Police Department under the late Chief Roy Lane<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15306","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=15306"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19588,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15306\/revisions\/19588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15306"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}