Tom Acker
for Mesa County Commissioner
CAMPAIGN BUZZ
March 20 2024
CMU professor enters county commissioner race
By CHARLES ASHBY
Assuming no other Republican gets into the race to challenge Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis in the primary, he will face off against a Democrat in the fall.
Retired Colorado Mesa University professor Thomas Acker threw his hat into the ring earlier this month, saying he did so, in part, because of the GOP dominance in a county that has more unaffiliated voters than Republicans.
“In the recent history of Mesa County, we have had only Republicans sitting as commissioners,” Acker said. “In light of the extreme politics voiced by the current GOP, I will be informed by a broader segment of our community’s members in deciding county policies.”
That’s also partly why Acker favors the county going to a five-member commission instead of three, saying it would bring a broader range of perspectives to the board in setting those policies.
Currently, there are more than 52,400 unaffiliated voters in the county, compared to about 40,220 Republicans. Democrats, meanwhile, have less than 15,000 registered voters. Even though commissioners serve one of three districts, they are elected countywide.
Acker is a long-time professor of Hispanic studies at CMU who also has worked for immigrant rights and against human trafficking.
He’s been on the boards of such groups as the Colorado Human Trafficking Council, the Grand Valley Peace and Justice Board and the county’s chapter of the Western Colorado Alliance, a group that works on such things as landowner rights, improved environmental health and grassroots democracy.
Acker also worked as board president of the Hispanic Affairs Project, a group founded in 2006 that focuses on communities throughout the Western Slope better help immigrants and their families integrate into their new communities. Additionally, he is a founding member of Western Slope Again st Trafficking, a group created in 2015 to bring awareness to the region about human trafficking. As a commissioner, Acker said he wants to help improve the economic well-being of lower-income residents, including raising the minimum wage and pushing for more accessible affordable housing. “I am concerned that the commissioners have never stated how they intend to enforce their no-sanctuary policy,” he said.
Last month, in an effort to deal with any possible influx of immigrants that have been bused from the southern border to such so-called sanctuary cities as Denver, New York and Chicago, the commissioners approved a resolution making it clear that the county isn’t in that camp.
At the time, Davis said the county chose that option because it doesn’t have the resources to help those immigrants, saying what it does have is needed to help its own residents.
He and the two other commissioners, Janet Rowland and Bobbie Daniel, said it wouldn’t be “ethical or moral” to give false hope that the services they require are available here, but adding that they aren’t without empathy to their plight. They also said the resolution doesn’t apply to legal migrant workers who come to the county each year to work on its farms, vineyards and orchards.
Davis, who was first elected to the board in 2020, is the sole Republican in that race.
That’s not the case for Rowland, who faces two GOP contenders in the June primary in her reelection bid for Commissioner District 3: James J. Fletcher and Jason Bias. To date, there are no Democrats seeking that seat.
Daniel is not up for reelection until 2026.
