Schmidt out of mayoral race; Huck to be next mayor

Deli impressed with Huck.
Huck respects Deli. Good times.

The race for Crested Butte mayor appears to be over before it started. Current Crested Butte councilman and former mayor Jim Schmidt is withdrawing from the race, leaving Aaron Huckstep as the only candidate.

“I think Huck and I would work very well together on the Town Council,” explained Schmidt. “We have spent several hours together discussing the direction of the town and I am comfortable having him in that position. I was very impressed with his work on the USA Pro Challenge bike race and I think he will add a good voice to the council. So I am withdrawing from that race.”
Schmidt was elected to the Town Council two years ago, so he has two years left in his current term.
“I had a lot of people thank me for stepping up to run for mayor again but I think in the big picture, this will work great,” Schmidt said.
In a letter to the community (see page 3), Schmidt also said he was hoping a woman would have stepped up to run for council, but that won’t happen this year.
Huckstep looks forward to working with Schmidt on the council. “Jim’s lengthy record of public service to our town deserves a significant amount of respect. After speaking with Jim at length regarding the issues he and I believe are important to town, I am hopeful and encouraged that we will be allies on the council,” commented Huckstep. “I feel strongly that we can accomplish more working together than campaigning against one another. His decision, one that I’m certain was not easy, will allow the town’s citizens to benefit from having both of us on the council. I look forward to working with him on the issues that may arise for the council over the course of the next two years.”
“People still need to ask good questions of all the candidates and hold people to their promises,” said Schmidt, “but in the end, I think I’ve been an effective Town Council member and can bring some history and perspective to decisions. A lot of issues recycle themselves and it can be good to have some history of the reasoning about why things ended up the way they did.”
Four people are running for three seats on the council. Glenn Michel, David Owen, Kevin McGruther and Shaun Matusewicz are all vying for a seat. The ballots will be mailed to voters in mid-October and must be returned by Election Day, Tuesday,
November 1.