The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Second Republican candidate announces bid
The field of Republicans vying for a Gunnison County commissioner’s seat in November’s election has grown to two after Mark Ewing announced his bid this week for the nomination to face incumbent Jim Starr.
“I’m running for the county commissioner’s seat because I think it is going to take somebody that is going to be a pragmatist in making decisions the county is facing,” says Ewing, a five-year full-time resident of Crested Butte South. “I want to be the guy to make a difference.”
Ewing spent more than 30 years working in the real estate and mortgage business in California, running three companies that employed 300 real estate agents and 45 loan officers, before he moved to the Gunnison Valley. He served as executive director of the Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce from 2004 to 2006 and is currently a mortgage banker with Community Banks of Colorado.
His experience growing a company in a competitive Bay Area environment, managing a stable of employees that spanned several offices, and his other business responsibilities gives him what he thinks are the right credentials to take on the issues the county will confront over the next few years.
“My payroll was a little over $250,000 every two weeks at the time, so with that and my background in business I think I have the experience to deal with some of the issues the county is facing,” says Ewing.
The biggest hurdle Ewing sees on the horizon is creating economic development in the county, as each commissioner candidate in the last race claimed. But Ewing’s view of the problem is wider than just one industry.
“Economic development is bigger than anyone is talking about,” he says. “When people think about economic development they think about building a lot of houses or other kinds of development. All of those things have to be in the proper mix and what people living here want.”
To Ewing, Western State College is the county’s biggest economic driver. As a commissioner, he says, he would work to help grow the college and make sure that WSC’s state funding is secure.
“It could be huge in what it does for our economy,” he says.
Pointing out that the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport has the third-longest airstrip in the state, Ewing would like to see the county use that resource as another economic driver, along with Gunnison Valley Hospital and Crested Butte Mountain Resort.
As for why he is running now for a county commissioner’s seat, he says, “I’ve been thinking about this for a while. From the standpoint of integrity we have good folks in there now. So that isn’t why I’m running. I’m not running against them per se. I just think I’d be good at the job.”
While Ewing will be running as a Republican, he says he’s not a “typical Republican. I cringe when they say ‘Drill baby, drill.’”
So far, the only other Republican with an intention to run for the District 3 county commissioner’s seat is Phil Chamberland.
There are currently no candidates registered with the county election department in the commissioner’s race; however that will change after the Republicans hold their caucus March 16.
