Letter from Clint Driscoll
Local Politics – April 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Martha,
I enjoyed your piece on partisanship, and at the risk of being run out of the county I would like to posit a theory, strictly on the academic level, that you did not touch on in your letter. My thesis is this: We are seeing in Chaffee County not so much an increase in ideological partisanship as a shift in the basic power structure. Essentially the political battles up here, despite what some Republicans claim about party-switching Democrats, have pitted Republicans against Republicans. Face it, up here Democrats (like me) are rare as Hump
For decades Central Colorado was an isolated community unto itself. Once the railroads quit hauling passengers the upper Arkansas area was literally cut off, left to mind its own business in its own way. That included surviving a number of major economic collapses. The valley survived, no thanks to any outside help. That survival challenge produced a tight-knit, traditional community with acknowledged decision makers.
In the last decade the area has been discovered and many folks, very much like me, have moved in — and more are coming. At the risk of being too general and not having any real empirical data I would say the majority of newcomers may want the best of rural amenities (view, clean air, low-key lifestyle) but are essentially urban/suburban in outlook. Their ideas on how the valley should look and how it should be run are contrary to the established ways. And that difference bumps up against the ensconced network of citizens who have made the major decisions for years. We may be looking not so much at partisanship as at a culture war.
The last commissioner’s race and the brouhaha over electing directors to the conservancy district prove my point. In the contest between De Luca and McMurry both candidates portrayed themselves as locals and both definitely have family history up here. But De Luca was gone for 30 years or so working as an engineer for a major player in the high-tech revolution. McMurry stayed here, ranching, being a volunteer firefighter, member of the schoolboard, 4H supporter, commissioner and conservancy district director. He represents the traditional valley citizen that wielded the power and made the decisions here for decades.
De Luca, whether it is true or not, represents the new attitude, and it was the newcomers that got him elected. He bucked the established power structure and won. In the future, McMurry and his supporters in the local party will find themselves challenged at many points, power is shifting. That doesn’t mean the newcomers will win every time. I don’t think a critical mass has yet been reached to cause a full-blown reaction that will totally replace the Republican apparatchiks who have run the local party for years. I may be wrong on that, we’ll see. But an example of older tradition still surviving is the Jim Thompson-Carol McFarland race. Thompson ran against a long-time resident who has been part of the network and whose late husband had been a commissioner in the past. Thompson didn’t carry his own district. He won thanks to a majority of Republican voters in the southern half of the county who agreed with his stand on development even though he’s a Democrat. Old local ties still bind but they may not ma
The same shift of values can be seen in the petition to elect water conservancy district directors. Appointing long-time, water-savvy residents has been a given. Now, residents, most of them Republicans, want the givens gone. If an election happens, the regular go-to guys may be bypassed. Is that a good thing? Not always. The loss of experience, of knowledge of the real environment and how it works could be flushed.
Anyway, maybe you could call it partisanship, but I think it is more a cultural and factional fight for power and influence within the same party. How they will go after each other, or whether they will find a way to compromise, I don’t know. I do know this, the Democratic Party won’t benefit. Republicans, locals, and newcomers will unite to serve any Democrat his or her vitals on a bed of lettuce any time they run, bet on it. That partisanship is alive and well here.
Clint Driscoll
Buena Vista