YOUR AD HERE »

Su Lum: Slumming

The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO, Colorado

This is it! I’ve got my mail-in ballot (which I will hand-deliver) and my black ballpoint pen, and here goes.

Sixteen candidates for president, including Roseanne Barr. Tempting as that may be, I vote for Barack Obama. We have an intelligent, compassionate president, and I want to keep it that way. Above all, I don’t want Mitt Romney stacking the Supreme Court for my lifetime.

For state representative, Sal Pace, the good guy running against the uber-tea partier.



I hope all the tea partiers get eradicated from Congress so we can stop the gridlock.

The only candidate for University of Colorado regent I know is Jessica Garrow, who has worked hard and deserves to win.




For state representative, I voted for Kathleen Curry (see past columns).

The district attorney question was the hardest one for me, and I didn’t have much to go on except letters to the editor and Squirm Night. I heard from several people in Beeson’s office who said he ran a good ship, but my overall impression was that Beeson has been too zealous in filing criminal charges during his term of office.

Squirm Night didn’t exactly throw me into Sherry Caloia’s camp, but it did cast more doubts about Beeson. I especially was turned off by Beeson’s vehement stand against the marijuana-legalization question.

Pot and I have never gotten along, but since I defend the rights of others to ingest it, I was offended by Beeson’s “reefer madness” response when asked about it. Caloia had an opportunity to step up to the plate but opted for “let the voters decide.”

The district is so Republican that it is all probably moot, but I voted for Caloia.

For county commissioner, I voted for John Young. He will be strong on the board, and that’s what we need, with the oil companies, as he predicted, already knocking at the door of Thompson Divide.

I don’t, thank goodness, know any of the judges, so I left those blank.

If you have a mail-in ballot, now turn it over! There’s more on the other side.

I voted “yes” for all three amendments (see past columns). Amendment 64 is the marijuana-legalization question.

I voted “no” for the school tax for a very simple reason: It’s a sales tax imposed only on Aspen. The school district includes all of Pitkin County and the town of Snowmass, but the county said “no way,” and Snowmass said its sales taxes (which it had approved over the years) were already too high. So swing in the wind, Aspen – it’s up to you. Or not.

I voted “yes” for the hydroelectric plant (see previous column). The more we can do to become self-sustaining, the better, and if we lose water rights, we will really be up the creeks.

I voted “yes” for the renewal of the contract with Source Gas. This is not a stealth question.

Finally, alas, the library. I love the facility, and I love the staff, but I don’t love the new plaza design and think the board should have made a greater effort to come up with something more acceptable after it heard the public outcry. A sad “no-no” from me.