Republican Brandon Becker Files to Run for Chaffee County Commissioner

Republican Brandon Becker has filed to run for the District 3 seat on the Chaffee County Board of County Commissioners.

This brings to two the number of Republican candidates who have so far indicated they will run for the seat. Dr. Alison Brown announced her intention to run last Friday, Jan 28.  His election committee — Brandon for County Commissioner — has been formed, but a web search has not yet turned up a formal website. Filing to run is the first step. Candidates still need to collect voter signatures to gain a place on the primary run-off ballot.

The District 3 seat is currently held by incumbent Rusty Granzella (Republican), who as yet has not announced his decision of whether or not to run for another term. Over the past several elections, District 3 voters have tended to vote Republican. Although it should be noted that in Colorado, all registered voters within a county vote on all county commissioner seats, not just the voters within the District to be represented.

The Colorado Tracer election reports show that to date, only these two candidates have filed; no Democrats or unaffiliated candidates have filed for District 3 as of Feb. 3, 2022.

The general election is scheduled for November 8, 2022, and the primary election is scheduled for June 28, at which time one Republican will be selected to continue his or her campaign.

For perspective, Best Neighborhood.org has listed Chaffee County as a “split” county — neither conservative, nor liberal, but leaning slightly conservative based on the fact that there are more registered Republican voters than Democrat party voters. It does however have a block of unaffiliated voters than is larger than either political party. In contrast to the neighboring counties it is normally grouped among, Fremont, Custer, and Park counties lean conservative, while Lake, Gunnison, Saguache, Summit and Eagle lean liberal.