All three Republicans jockeying to represent northwest Douglas County say the burden of property taxes is a top issue facing local residents.
“That’s the No. 1 issue when I go door to door that people are feeling the burn,” said Priscilla Rahn, former vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party, who is one of the three hopefuls running to replace outgoing Commissioner Lora Thomas in District 3.
The other two candidates are state Sen. Kevin Van Winkle and John Carson, a former Douglas County school board president.
The three, who are on the Republican primary ballot for the election later this month, spoke with the Douglas County News-Press amid their push to join the board of county commissioners. Rahn is a music, band and orchestra teacher and a former principal who has a small business online. Carson is an attorney for a Colorado mortgage company. Van Winkle was sworn into the state Senate in 2022 and is a small-business owner.
Homeowners around the Denver area recently faced steep hikes in their property tax bills, driven by an expensive real-estate market. In Douglas County, the median increase in residential property values compared to the prior year was about 47%.
“We need to dramatically cut property taxes, and the county has the power to do that,” said Van Winkle, who currently represents the Highlands Ranch area at the Capitol.
Carson said the spike in property taxes “has contributed to the already high cost of living.”
Against a backdrop of conservatives virtually unified against higher property tax bills, the three candidates are fighting to set themselves apart. Given the high number of registered Republicans in the county, the winner of the primary could glide to an easy victory in the November election.
The seat is being vacated by Thomas, who cannot run for reelection because of term limits. The district’s population center is Highlands Ranch.
Douglas County commissioners are elected “at large” from one of three geographic districts. That means commissioners are required to reside in different districts, but voters throughout the entire county cast ballots for each seat.
In addition to the District 3 race, the District 2 race is also competitive — two Democrats are facing off in the vast region that covers Castle Rock and the southern portion of the county, including much of Douglas’ rural areas. The Democrats, Julien Bouquet and Angela Thomas, are competing for the chance to unseat incumbent Commissioner George Teal, a Republican who is unopposed in the primary.
In District 3, one Democrat — Josh Smith — has filed documentation to run for the seat and is also unopposed in the primary.
Here’s what District 3’s Republican hopefuls had to say on the issues and their backgrounds.
Talking experience
Claiming three decades of work in business and law, Carson says his experience prepared him well for a county commissioner seat.
“I have managed large teams of people and overseen substantial budgets,” said Carson, who also served on the governing body of the University of Colorado. As a CU regent, “I oversaw a $4 billion budget and four university campuses.”
He also touts delivering “conservative results” as president of the Douglas County school board, noting he helped end the contract with the county teachers union.
Rahn pointed to her service on the Douglas County Planning Commission, a group of residents who advise the county’s elected leaders on property development matters — including plans for housing and other land uses.
The planning commissioners make recommendations, and the county’s board of three elected commissioners generally make the final call on development decisions in areas outside of municipalities, also known as unincorporated areas.
“We have interactions with the community that are relevant,” said Rahn, who was chosen to chair the planning commission last year. She added: “I have a deep understanding of Douglas County.”
Van Winkle says he has a “proven record” in the state legislature of fighting for conservative values.
That includes stances on “big bills such as Second Amendment bills and life bills,” referring to proposals that relate to abortion, he said.
Eye on ‘RWR’ water plan
The Republicans also talked about what’s known as the Renewable Water Resources plan, an idea that has drawn controversy in county politics.
That’s a proposal to pump about 22,000 acre-feet of water per year to the county from the San Luis Valley in the south part of the state.
An acre-foot is the equivalent of a one-foot-deep pool about the size of a football field. Renewable Water Resources, often called RWR, is the private company that proposed the project.
In 2022, Commissioner Abe Laydon joined Thomas in deciding not to move forward with the project, and Teal continued to support it.
Van Winkle doesn’t support the RWR project.
“That project doesn’t seem to be a wise investment for the county,” said Van Winkle, who anticipated that the matter could become tied up in court for the next decade or more if it were to move forward.
“If Douglas County pursued trying to take the water of the San Luis Valley, those counties would sue Douglas County,” he added.
Carson says he would not have voted for the RWR proposal if he were a commissioner. He argues that that type of policy decision should be left to local water districts.
“If a water district feels they want to purchase water or partner with that type of entity, that’s fine with me,” Carson said. But bringing that idea to the county to ask for taxpayer money is something he would not have supported, he said.
Rahn noted there is no RWR plan currently in front of county officials.
“So I can’t vote on that because there’s no plan, but what I would support is looking at a plan that anybody would bring before the county commissioners. I have an all-of-the-above approach,” Rahn said, adding: “I will never say I’m going to reject a plan from anyone. I will do the job of a commissioner and be fair and listen and make a decision based on the application in front of me.”
She acknowledged she received large campaign donations from Hugh Bernardi and John Kim, who have been involved in RWR. But she said their support is not about RWR and that they are “invested in the community.”
“I haven’t talked to them about RWR at all,” Rahn said.
“RWR just happened to be one organization that brought a (idea) to the county” and people have been “demonizing them,” Rahn added.
