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Two candidates vying for House District 57

Glenwood Springs, Parachute residents seeking legislative seat

Joe Moylan
Glenwood Springs resident Bob Rankin listens to Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton deliver the keynote address Saturday during the Moffat County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner. Rankin is running for House District 57 and will face Parachute resident Ron Roesener in the Republican primary.
Joe Moylan

Quotable:

“I ran a small business, trained new people and employed over 1,000 people. I know what it takes to meet a payroll, to provide benefits and to assist employees with family needs.”

— Ron Roesener, a Parachute resident and candidate for Colorado House District 57

“We have a president who has never had a job, never been in the military and has some notion of a utopian society that can only be created if only we would trust large government and well-meaning bureaucrats. We know from history that doesn’t work.”

— Bob Rankin, a Glenwood Springs resident and candidate for Colorado House District 57





Glenwood Springs resident Bob Rankin listens to Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton deliver the keynote address Saturday during the Moffat County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner. Rankin is running for House District 57 and will face Parachute resident Ron Roesener in the Republican primary.
Joe Moylan

Quotable:

“I ran a small business, trained new people and employed over 1,000 people. I know what it takes to meet a payroll, to provide benefits and to assist employees with family needs.”

— Ron Roesener, a Parachute resident and candidate for Colorado House District 57

“We have a president who has never had a job, never been in the military and has some notion of a utopian society that can only be created if only we would trust large government and well-meaning bureaucrats. We know from history that doesn’t work.”



— Bob Rankin, a Glenwood Springs resident and candidate for Colorado House District 57

While Moffat County Republicans were raising money for local candidates during Saturday’s semi-annual Lincoln Day Dinner, Garfield County GOP members were losing their chairman.



Ron Roesener, 62, of Parachute, had been at the helm of the Garfield County Republican Party for the last year. He announced his resignation Saturday during a regularly scheduled county GOP meeting.

Almost at the same time, KC Hume, Moffat County Republican Party chairman, was reading a letter from Roesener announcing his candidacy for the Colorado House District 57 seat.

“Ron wanted to be here in-person for the announcement,” Hume said. “However, according to our bylaws, you cannot serve as a county chairman and run for public office at the same time. Unfortunately, Garfield County’s meeting and our dinner were scheduled for the same night.”

According to the letter, Roesener has a background in estate and financial planning in the rural farm and ranch markets, and at one time held clients in 50 of Colorado’s 64 counties.

“I ran a small business, trained new people and employed over 1,000 people,” the letter states. “I know what it takes to meet a payroll, to provide benefits and to assist employees with family needs.”

If financial planning is Roesener’s professional background, affordable higher education is his political motivation.

“Education of our next generation is at risk,” Roesener wrote in the letter. “The University of Colorado is now $8,900 just in tuition. It has risen 9 percent a year for three years. How are your children or grandchildren going to get a higher education? I have a plan.

“The oil and gas industry is a big part of western Colorado. Why can’t we encourage them to return and designate the taxes and revenue we collect to higher education to help reduce the cost? This is not a pipe dream. Vernal, Utah, is doing this now.”

Roesener is the second Republican candidate to join the HD 57 race. Bob Rankin, 69, of Glenwood Springs, made his pitch for the office earlier this month.

Rankin, an electrical engineer, addressed the audience Saturday where he introduced himself as a free market capitalist, a proponent of all energy sources and a supporter of economic development through the small business sector.

“This is an opportunity to serve the people, a value I learned as a captain in the United States Army, as a corporate president, and as the founder of two small businesses and a nonprofit organization,” Rankin said.

And a value he believes is lacking in President Barack Obama.

“We have a president who has never had a job, never been in the military and has some notion of a utopian society that can only be created if only we would trust large government and well-meaning bureaucrats,” Rankin said. “We know from history that doesn’t work.”

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