County candidates showcase skills at Yam Theatre

link Christina Calloway: Staff photo

Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce Director Karl Terry tests the mic Thursday night at the Roosevelt County Election Forum held at the Yam Theatre. Behind him are the Republican Roosevelt County Commission candidates facing off in the June primary.

Senior writer

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Roosevelt County candidates in the June primary election showcased their public speaking skills and showed voters their differences and similarities from their opponents Thursday at an election forum held in the Yam Theatre.

The forum was sponsored by the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce and gave voters a better picture of where candidates stand on issues that affect the area. Early voting begins May 17 and the primary election will be held June 3.

Though some candidates are running unopposed in the primary, they will have to run again in November in the general election. Candidates of the seven contested races in November’s election participated.

County Commission

There are two contested races for commission seats in the June primary. There are no Democrats running for a commission seat and District 5 Republican incumbent Kendell Buzard is running unopposed.

Republican candidate Charles D Bennett, a real estate business owner, is running against his neighbor rancher Lewis Shane Lee for the open District 3 seat.

District 4 incumbent Republican Scott Burton is being challenged by former commissioner Gene Creighton.

The candidates were all asked the same questions, ranging from the county’s budget to cutting jail costs but the hot button issue was their opinions on the listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species on the Endangered Species Act.

All candidates agreed the listing is the threat to landowners and energy industries due to possible additional regulations to be enforced to protect the bird, native to the county.

“It should’ve never been listed because the science does not support it,” Bennett said vehemently. “It’s a scam deal that should have never happened.”

His suggestion to fight the listing was to unite the seven counties on the southeastern side of the state and create an alliance and ask the state attorney general to do something about the listing.

His opponent Lee said the chicken’s habitat is down due to the drought and when it rains again, the chicken’s population should grow. He believes in asking our local state senators for help in filing a lawsuit against the listing.

Burton and Creighton agreed the listing will create lots of problems but differed in who they felt needed to be addressed to make change.

Burton said it starts on the state level and said the farm and ranch community as well as other landowners are preparing to sue in result of the listing, which he feels infringes on landowner rights.

“If you stop fighting them, they’re going to take your land,” Burton said.

Creighton sees it as a federal issue and feels landowners have to put pressure on the federal government, using Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who is currently fighting the federal government in his protest to grazing rules and regulations.

“It shows that it can happen,” said Creighton of Bundy.

County Assessor

There are two Republican candidates facing off in the primary for the assessor position including current Roosevelt County Assessor Kenner Carrasco, who was appointed to the position in 2011 and served nine years in that office prior, and George Beggs who has been with the office for 13 years.

Democratic candidate and former Roosevelt County Assessor Royene Tivis has 22 years experience working in the office and is running unopposed in the primary.

When the candidates were asked how they would manage the tough job of customer service, Beggs said the job requires that they deal with the customer on a daily basis and that each taxpayer is different and that he’s dedicated to serving the taxpayer’s needs.

Carrasco said it’s hard to always give the taxpayer what they want, especially if it’s a lower value for their property, but if someone disagrees, it’s a priority for him to solve the problem and either fix the mistake or make sure the taxpayer can contest it through the proper channels.

Tivis said she’s always had an open door policy when she was in office. “I deal with problems immediately,” Tivis said. She added if her office is wrong, she makes sure the issue is fixed, if not, then she feels it’s important to explain the situation to them.

County Clerk

There are two Republican candidates for County Clerk, current Clerk DeAun Searl, who has six years experience in the office and was appointed in December, and Beverly Bennett, a real estate owner and broker.

Searl filled the vacancy of the clerk’s seat after the former clerk resigned in protest of issuing same sex marriage certificates after the state Supreme Court deemed the same sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

Both candidates said their personal beliefs would not interfere with their duties and the oath they have to take to follow the law.

But the candidates deferred a bit when asked to describe their personal management skills.

Bennett said the position calls for a leader, but one who can’t do it all themselves so she feels it’s important for the clerk to delegate tasks.

“Everyone needs to know how to everyone else’s job in case of an emergency,” Bennett said.

Searl said she felt it was important to find the strength of her employees and delegate the duties to them that fit their strengths best. She added that continuing education classes for the office’s employees is important to keep them up to date on the law.

County Sheriff

Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Malin Parker, who’s been with RCSO since 2007, is the Republican candidate running unopposed in the primary.

He will run against Democrat Charles Perez, a current Eastern New Mexico University officer with 32 years of law enforcement experience, in the general election. Perez is also running unopposed in the primary.

While they both agreed on several issues, such as their refusal to enforce more restrictive federal gun-control laws if they were passed, their experience showed how they would handle ridding the community of drugs differently.

Perez said drugs are clearly a problem in the county and U.S. 70 is one of the main corridors of illegal drug activity in the area. In order to combat is to coordinate efforts with surrounding agencies and “support and ask for stiffer penalties in hopes consequences deter actions.”

Parker said with his experience working on the area drug task force, he knows 95 percent of the crimes in the area can be linked back to drug use.

He thinks getting more pay for deputies, especially since they put their lives on the line in dealing with drug-related crimes, will help enforcement as well as getting them more training will combat the drug issue.

Magistrate Judge

Current Magistrate Judge Linda Short is running for the Republican nomination and re-election against Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office deputy Timothy Gibson. There are no Democrats running for judge.

While experience on the bench is the difference between the two candidates, with Short being elected in 2010, Gibson is running on the platform of pushing for stricter sentencing for repeat offenders.

“The crimes they commit just doesn’t affect them, it affects the community,” Gibson said. “I want to make the community a safer place.”

Short said she ensures she helps make the community a safer place through the decisions she makes, such as sentencing offenders to community service work so that they pay back the community for the crime. She added that she runs a respectful and courteous, and organized courtroom.