Crested Butte sure is “Feeling the Bern”

BOCC candidate announcements

By Mark Reaman

Democrats turned out en mass Tuesday night to caucus for presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton. And the overwhelming majority of county Democrats prefer Sanders.

The line at the Crested Butte town hall snaked out the door and through Crank’s Plaza well after the scheduled start time of 7 o’clock. The caucus was moved from the town council chambers to Jerry’s Gym as 316 people showed up to support their candidate. For many, it was their first caucus experience.

“It was epic,” said Gunnison County Democratic Party chairperson Jeremy Rubingh. “We expected maybe 100 to 150 people in the upper valley and it tripled that. It was packed to the gills. There were 293 people who showed up in Gunnison and we even had 25 people participate in Marble and Somerset. It was unprecedented.”

Countywide, 481 people stood for Sanders, 141 for Clinton and eight were uncommitted. Forty-one total delegates were awarded to Sanders and 13 to Clinton. All of the delegates from the town of Crested Butte were awarded to Sanders since Clinton did not reach the 15 percent threshold to qualify for a delegate. Sanders also won the state overall.

Gunnison County Republicans also held a caucus Tuesday night at Western State Colorado University, but state party leaders had decided to not officially count their members’ preferences for president. According to the Denver Post, the state’s GOP executive committee voted to cancel the  poll after the national party amended its rules; if a poll had been conducted, Colorado delegates would have had to vote for the caucus winner. In an informal straw pole, local Republicans turned up behind Ted Cruz (25 percent), Donald Trump (24 percent) and Marco Rubio (22 percent).

County Republican party chairman Brad Tutor said 103 registered Republicans showed up Tuesday. “That was pretty good,” he said. “It shows the desire for a lot of grass roots involvement.”

Rubingh described the state decision by Republicans as a “slap in the face” to people who want to participate in grass roots democracy and he said it showed the Democratic Party was more inclusive for voters.

“The whole process Tuesday was pretty awesome,” concluded Rubingh. “Now we need to keep these people engaged. There are a lot of important races coming up later this year.”

Speaking of races, Tutor said he intends to throw his hat in the ring for the district one county commissioner seat now held by Paula Swenson. He will join Independent candidate Ryan Johnson and Democratic candidate John Messner in the race. In the other county commissioner seat up for election, incumbent Jonathan Houck plans to run again for his seat and no one has announced a run against him.