By Logan Hill
Special to the Herald Times
RBC | Since being elected as the Rio Blanco County Republican Committee chairman one of my goals has been to communicate with the community about issues of importance, both locally and on the larger scale. Of course, this information wouldn’t be complete without adding in my own little dash of commentary and political philosophy.
Often national events are the ones that garner the most attention in the news and on our social media pages. But local and state affairs may have even more bearing on your day-to-day life. Therefore, it is my intention to bring light to some of these issues.
Next fall we will be electing a county commissioner, the majority of the other county offices, and state offices including governor, state senators and state representatives. In the spring there will be town trustees and mayoral races. These town offices are considered non-partisan so you won’t even know the party affiliation status of the candidates. It is every bit as important to know where your candidates for town offices stand in the questions of local control, individual liberty and political philosophy as it is to know the same for higher level elected officials. However, despite the small size of our communities, finding this information can sometimes be more challenging than expected. That is why it is so important for you to be involved. At the very least get yourself educated about the issues that are coming up and the people backing the ideas behind them. Then go to the meetings, write and call your elected officials, read the paper for coverage of local meetings and speak up. I couldn’t tell you how many meetings I’ve attended where there was no one from the general public in attendance. The dirty little secret is that’s the way the bureaucrats and politicians want it, they truly don’t want to hear from you. You might challenge their ideas and plans.
We live in a county that is majority Republican. That means most of our local elected officials are Republicans. There is a feeling in most of the country that just because someone has an R or a D behind their name means that you cannot criticize them from within the party. This is a false narrative. In a county such as ours where the officials are often decided at the primary level (think county commissioners) or have no party affiliation (think mayor and school board) I believe it is doubly important that you vet and use great discretion when choosing the candidate you will be voting for. Always remember that elections have consequences and sometimes they are unintended if the voter is uninformed about the policy directions of each candidate. Just because someone claims the Republican party does not mean they hold conservative values such as fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, limited government and property rights. Therefore, it is important to keep track of the record of the people that you put into power and be critical of them.
The Republican Party will have a few events in the coming months. Precinct Caucuses for both parties will take place on Tuesday, March 6. The Republican County Assembly will be on March 17, and the state Republican Convention is on April 14. Get involved. Show up. Give a darn.
Logan Hill is the Rio Blanco County Republican Party chairman.
