Letter: Narrowing the field in Basalt

This is why I chose to pull out of the race: Each voter gets three votes to cast among all the council candidates. The three winners will be those with the largest number of votes. As of Tuesday morning, there were eight candidates including myself and Bel Carpenter who would have been competing for the three open council seats and whose names would appear on the ballot unless they withdrew from the race. Carpenter and I discussed the risk of diluting the vote among those who understand the multitude of important topics including balancing the river-park opportunities as well as those of affordable housing and the pedestrian underpass, and we agreed that it would be best for us to withdraw to be make sure that Basalt got the representation it needs. Katie Schwoerer and Jen Riffle are without question what Basalt now needs. They are both young, smart, hardworking and energetic and will represent both the property owners, which they are, and those who need affordable housing well. They also represent a demographic that needs representation. Jen owns her own business. I am convinced that both Katie and Jen have the courage and the desire to stand up and listen to and represent the public, as they are beholden to none, other than the public at large.

Mark Kwiecienski

Basalt