RBC I On Saturday, Republican residents from all points in Rio Blanco County gathered in the Colorado Room on the Colorado Northwestern Community College campus in Rangely for the 2016 Rio Blanco Republican County Assembly.
The 55 delegates voted on which county commissioner candidates would appear on the June Republican primary ballot, and they elected 12 delegates to the Colorado State Assembly next month.
County delegates opted to give all four commissioner candidates access to the ballot.
The votes for Commissioner District Two, which represents the west end of the county, came in with 21 votes for incumbent Jon Hill and 34 votes for challenger Jeff Rector.
The race for Commissioner District Three saw 18 votes for incumbent Jeff Eskelson and 37 votes for challenger and former Rio Blanco County sheriff Si Woodruff.
Each candidate needed a minimum of 17 votes, or 30 percent, of the total delegate count to appear on the ballot.
County Assembly delegates then elected delegates to represent Rio Blanco at the Colorado Republican Assembly on April 9. Those attending include Logan and Jennifer Hill, John and Susan Scott, Christina Buckler, Andy Key, Richard Garner, Jon and Fran Hill, John and Teresa Sims and Jeff Rector.
At the meeting attendees also heard short speeches from numerous state-wide candidates including state Rep. Bob Rankin, who spoke on his own behalf as well as that of his wife, Joyce Rankin, who is running for State Board of Education, state Sen. Randy Baumgardner from Senate District 8, Jeff Cheney running for Judicial District 9 District Attorney and Alex Beinstein, who is challenging state Rep. Scott Tipton in Congressional District Three.
The Republican Primary will occur on June 28, when all Rio Blanco Republicans will get to chose their commissioner nominees and, likely, the next commissioners since at this time there are no Democratic challengers to the seats.
