{"id":61520,"date":"2014-03-05T22:30:49","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T05:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-republicans-participate-in-caucus\/"},"modified":"2014-03-06T05:30:49","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T05:30:49","slug":"local-republicans-participate-in-caucus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-republicans-participate-in-caucus\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Republicans participate in caucus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dave
Dave Sanford, co-chair for the Republican Caucus Precinct 2, explains the process to rank-and-file party members during a meeting at the Ponderosa Restaurant in Dolores Tuesday.<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Party caucuses are a grass-roots system whereby rank-and-file Republicans gather to choose who will be on the primary ballot.<\/p>\n

Caucus participants are required to be registered with the party, and in the first step they choose 18 delegates to attend the General Assembly on March 21.<\/p>\n

On that day, delegates from all the precincts gather to vote which candidates will be on the ballot. Candidates must receive at least 30 percent of the delegate vote to make the ballot. Otherwise, they will have to petition to get on.<\/p>\n

Dolores has the most delegates, explained retiring caucus co-chair Dave Sanford. For every 63 Republican voters in Precinct 2 who participated in the last general election the precinct gets one delegate.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery one here will be a delegate, or an alternate,\u201d Sanford said. \u201cThis is a grassroots Colorado election process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Todd King and Ron Roggenback were elected co-chairs.<\/p>\n

While delegate votes were tallied, lawyer jokes, Bronco jokes, and banker jokes were randomly shared before stump speeches were read by candidates and their supporters.<\/p>\n

Steve Nowlin, a candidate for Montezuma County Sheriff, said his 38 years in law enforcement qualifies him for the position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have proven leadership and management experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nowlin has worked for the Cortez Police Department, sheriff\u2019s office, and most recently as a criminal investigator with the Colorado State Patrol.<\/p>\n

A letter from Diane Fox, also a candidate for sheriff, was read.<\/p>\n

Fox worked in law enforcement for the Cortez Police Department and was assigned the school resource officer in 1998 for Cortez.<\/p>\n

Donnie Tanner, running for county commission, also had his letter read by a supporter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to encourage economic growth in Montezuma County,\u201d Tanner states. \u201cWith my experience as a business owner, I understand the challenges of daily operations, management, and long-range planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

A statement from Jim Candelaria, candidate for Montezuma County commissioner, stressed the importance of upgrading infrastructure, a balanced budget, and following rules and regulations that are in place.<\/p>\n

A statement from James Lambert, also a candidate for county commission, noted the job is more than one day a week, and promised he would work full time representing the interests of the county, especially the northwest corner where energy development is high.<\/p>\n

George Deavers is running for coroner. He has been the chief deputy since 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a special person to be a coroner,\u201d he states. \u201cYou have to be caring, compassionate and uphold a professional composure while talking to family members and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

A letter in support of Kim Percell, a candidate for county clerk was read. Percell is the chief deputy for the clerk\u2019s office, understands the election process, and has a financial background.<\/p>\n

A letter by Scott Davis, a candidate for county assessor was read. Davis was appointed to assessor after Mark Vanderpool left due to term limits. Davis stated he has been with the office for 19 years and understands the job. Since he has been in the office there has been no state mandated reappraisal orders, and all guidelines have been followed. Davis vowed to continue the work by Vanderpool to insure that energy companies pay their fair share of property taxes to the county.<\/p>\n

Caucuses give the party base a chance to participate in who should represent them, Sanford explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot every state uses this system. We\u2019re a red county, and this precinct has high involvement in the process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Sanford, co-chair for the Republican Caucus Precinct 2, explains the process to rank-and-file party members during a meeting at the Ponderosa Restaurant in Dolores Tuesday.Jim Mimiaga\/Cortez Journal Party caucuses are a grass-roots system whereby rank-and-file Republicans gather to choose who will be on the primary ballot. Caucus participants are required to be registered with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[188],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-61520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-star"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61520","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=61520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61520"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=61520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}