The race for Pitkin County’s District 1 commissioner is stacked with familiar names: Three veterans of local politics, all with decades of engagement in Aspen, vying to fill the seat commissioner Patti Clapper has held for much of the last three decades.
One of those candidates, restaurateur Rob Ittner, is the only person besides Clapper to represent District 1 in this millennium. Clapper served three terms from 1999 to 2011, then reached a term limit; Ittner won the election for her seat and served from 2011 to 2015. But after a four-year hiatus, Clapper was eligible to enter the race again: She defeated Ittner in his reelection campaign, won two subsequent elections as well, and is now termed out again, ineligible to run for reelection.
But Ittner still has some competition, coming from Aspen’s city council chambers. John Doyle, an artist, is about a year into his second consecutive term on the Aspen City Council, where he’s served since 2021.
And Torre, a tennis instructor and production staffer with the Wheeler Opera House, has the longest election resume of the three. He served two nonconsecutive terms as an Aspen city councilman and three consecutive terms as mayor, and ran but lost in several other city elections. He put his name in the hat for city councilman again last year, having reached a term limit as mayor, but didn’t secure enough votes in a crowded race to keep a seat at the table.
The District 1 seat represents parts of Aspen proper, as well as several surrounding neighborhoods and much of the land east of Aspen, and the election is at-large, meaning all county voters get a say in the race regardless of which district those voters live in.
With three candidates in the race, a June 30 primary will determine which two advance to the November general election. Ballots have been mailed to voters, and can be returned by mail or ballot drop box. In-person voting at the Pitkin County administration building in Aspen begins June 22.
Make note that there is also a race for District 2 commissioner this year — but with just two candidates, Ted Mahon and Emily Kolbe, both automatically advance to the general election and won’t appear on the primary ballot. Look for more coverage to come in both races.
The Aspen Daily News interviewed all three candidates for District 1 county commissioner in advance of the June 30 primary, asking the same range of questions over the course of an hour conversation with each and following up on specifics where warranted.
The following are highlights from those conversations, edited for clarity and length, that focus on an introduction to the candidates. Answers have been organized alphabetically by name.
Aspen Daily News: Why are you running for District 1 commissioner?
John Doyle: I must say, it wasn’t on my radar. I was approached by several people from Pitkin County, the organization — I’m not going to name names — but during my conversations with them, it was pointed out to me that I live in Patti Clapper’s district, she is term-limited, and that if I don’t run now, I’m going to have to wait four years.
And with the warmest, driest winter that I personally ever experienced here, and the warmest, driest winter in 131 years of record-keeping, I think the time for me to run is now, as the most environmentally conscious candidate. If we wait four years — I just think the time is now to act on the climate crisis, and I can have a bigger impact at the county than I can at the city. The county has more residents than the city does, and the county has a greater reach than the city does. As amazing as Aspen is, Pitkin has more on its plate.
Rob Ittner: I think it stems back to the fact that I served as county commissioner from 2011 to 2015, so I know the job real well. I know what I’m getting into, and I found it tremendously rewarding throughout that time period. And also, 11 years later, I want to give back more to the community. I just came from the Rotary meeting, where I’m a Rotarian, and our motto is “service before self,” so getting involved and staying involved with the community is a big aspect of my life.
And I know that I have a good skill set for what a BOCC needs, in terms of having a lot of diverse backgrounds — business background, some volunteer nonprofit background, a love for the outdoors, all of those things combine into the skill set needed for the BOCC.
Torre: I’m running for Pitkin County Commissioner to bring my experience and my dedication and my success in moving the needle on so many issues that are important to our valley and our county. And I want to bring that leadership to the BOCC and move our valley forward.
ADN: What is your party affiliation, and has it ever changed? How, if at all, does that inform your policy decisions on a local level?
Doyle: I’ve been unaffiliated, I think, since I first registered to vote back in the ’80s. When I decided to run for this seat, I was told that I needed to call Howie Wallach [former chair of the Pitkin County Democratic Party] as soon as possible, and it was two weeks after the deadline to switch affiliations to Democrat.
I did it anyway, because I am a Democrat. I’ve never been Republican. I’ve never voted for a Republican presidential candidate or governor. Being unaffiliated allowed me a little bit more freedom than being a Democrat does, I think, but I was advised to do this because it [the county commissioner’s race is] an election with higher consequences, and being a Democrat does have its advantages.
I don’t think anything on my policy has changed from when I changed from Independent to Democrat. Again, I’ve always had Democratic ideals. To me, it was really just a label, a very important one, but until now, I never felt the need to say I was one or the other, because everybody knew I was a Democrat.
Ittner: I’ve been a Democrat for six and a half years, seven years. I was an Independent before that for a couple of years, and before that I was what I call a “New England Republican.” I came from Vermont, which is arguably the most liberal state in the union, and they have a Republican governor that’s highly favored by a lot of people.
I was a Republican when I ran for county commissioner previously — I didn't really put a lot of heat into political party affiliation at the time. It just happened to be the nature of where I came from in Vermont and growing up in the business world.
I think through the Trump time periods, my affiliation is more toward the Democratic Party. I believe in things like fiscal responsibility, but I also believe in social liberalism. To give you an example, as a Republican, when I was in college, when Bernie Sanders was running for his first congressional campaign, I canvassed for Bernie Sanders in Vermont.
I don’t believe that we should be fighting. I think the division is sad, and I think hopefully I can bring some of that together, because I have partnerships and friends with all members in that community.
I don’t think my views have changed in terms of the affiliation, but I do think that my views in policy are about protecting quality of life and making sure that the entire community can benefit from what’s going on, and I think there are people that would want to politicize that and say one party does that and the other one doesn’t. I think we should work together and all try to achieve those goals.
Torre: I’m registered unaffiliated. I’ve probably always been unaffiliated. I don’t think I registered as a Democrat, but I’m a Democrat-leaning unaffiliated.
I think it informs my policy decision-making a lot. Even beyond voting on party lines or supporting party politics, over half of the registered voters in Colorado, and the majority of voters [in Pitkin County] are registered as unaffiliated. I think that gives you the opportunity to really just work on the best for your constituents outside of party politics. I represent all.
ADN: When was the last time you went to a county commissioner meeting, and how often are you going to those meetings?
Doyle: I believe the last one I went to was in February. It was one of the airport meetings. I did not give public comment. There were definitely enough people giving public comment that I didn’t feel my voice was going to move the needle one way or the other.
I would say [I attend] not that often. I do obviously read every story that appears in both papers. I religiously read both papers cover to cover every morning, so I feel fairly well informed about the community.
Ittner: I would say, probably about 60% of the BOCC meetings since January, either watching them online when I wasn’t able to attend the meeting, or at the meeting. I actually went to the housing retreat last week, which nobody showed up for even though it’s still a public meeting. I think I’m the only candidate that showed up for most of these meetings. I’ve been at caucus meetings up and down the valley over the last couple of months — so, a lot.
Torre: Two weeks ago, and I’m going as often as my work schedule allows me to make it in person, and oftentimes I find myself catching up with recorded episodes. So I attend often, and I watch even more often.
The big issues
The Aspen Daily News asked each candidate what they believe are the top three issues that county commissioners are facing now — and followed up on several specifics. Responses are grouped by candidate, including some clarification from follow-up questions, where applicable.
John Doyle’s top three: Water, housing and transportation
Doyle: I think the No. 1 issue that the county is facing right now is water. We’re in Stage 3 water restrictions [in the city]. The entire county is in the highest level of drought, and the situation’s really dire.
The whole Colorado River Basin’s in crisis, Lake Mead and Lake Powell are at 23% full and 31% full respectively, and those were our water savings accounts, and we’ve depleted that to the point where we’re now taking water out of Flaming Gorge Reservoir to prop up Lake Powell. [Editor’s note: As of June 7, Lake Mead is 29% full and Lake Powell is 25% full, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.]
If we call Powell and Mead our savings account, Flaming Gorge is like raiding your kid’s college fund, and when that kid’s college fund is gone, there’s nothing else left, at which point we’ll just be relying on seasonal flows, and clearly that’s not going to be enough.
ADN: Powell, Mead, Flaming Gorge — there are these huge state-level negotiations and region-level negotiations. What do you think Pitkin County can or should be doing to address the water crisis right now?
Doyle: I do think we should be looking at some type of partnership between the county and the city to increase water storage for a warmer, drier future. In most municipalities, water storage is put upstream from wherever they are. I’m not sure we really have that capability, although I’m curious about the ability to possibly enlarge Grizzly Reservoir or Lower Lost Man, and with the caveat that both of those places already have straws in them that take water to the Front Range, so we would have to be really careful at looking at that.
ADN: So, that’s issue No. 1. What’s No. 2?
Doyle: Everything’s part of the environment, all of it — housing, water, transit. I think those are all really important topics, but they all fall under the heading of environment because they’re all intertwined.
I think support for housing affects the environment, reduces the amount of traffic that we’re dealing with, if we can get more housing closer to Aspen.
And I believe I voted for every single housing measure that has been presented [to the city], from the Lumberyard to Burlingame Stage III to helping finance the mobile home parks downvalley, which are crucial to the success of our resort, so housing needs to be pursued at every opportunity.
The voters have spoken on the entrance to Aspen, and the current preferred alternative for the entrance includes a light rail component. And I will just say, I’m a huge fan of trains. We’ve talked about gondolas, but I think trains are more widely used to transport people, and I just think they’re more successful than gondolas.
The airport is being redeveloped right now. I want to make sure there’s a receiving site at the airport for the possibility of light rail or a gondola in the future. I really think it’s a huge opportunity for us to get cars off the road, just between Aspen and the airport, for starters, and logically connect that to the Brush Creek Park and Ride, and eventually all the way to Glenwood.
Rob Ittner’s top three: Transportation, public lands and environment, and housing and affordability
Ittner: I think everything is intertwined.
Obviously, the current BOCC has got their hands filled with one of the largest projects that they’ve ever done, which is the airport modernization project. When I was on the Board of County Commissioners, I was part of the board that did one of the first big master [airport] layout plans in 2012.
We thought it was going to be five to seven years that that runway was going to be redone, and we would start to be working on the terminals, and here we are, almost 15 years later, and we’ve barely broken ground on a lot of that project.
So, moving projects forward is a big aspect to that. I think the airport falls into this whole transportation-mobility aspect, so I would maybe group that into a larger category. It’s crucially important — transportation up and down the valley, transportation for our seniors, transportation for our workforce.
The second one: You can’t ignore the fact that Pitkin County is 80% public lands, and I think the majority of the people, whether they are tourists, longtime locals, … people that are in our community are here and drawn to this community because of our connection to the land, the natural environment, and our protection of the environment.
That balances with the fact that we are a tourism community, and most of the people that work here work within tourism and need that economic balance.
I’m here because I love the community that we have — the arts, and the aspects of those things — but I moved here from Vermont, and I love the outdoors, and I want to make sure that we do our utmost to protect that for generations to come.
And then it gets back to the livability, quality of life, with housing and affordability in our community. How do we work with the city of Aspen, other stakeholders? Obviously, the city of Aspen, Snowmass — those municipalities have a lot of control over the economic basis of things, but we’re partners with them, and all of their citizens are Pitkin County citizens. And the county has to provide a lot of services that those people need to have, from cradle to grave.
There’s just been an economic change, to catering to a wealthier group. The business model is more of a resort town, and I think our business model should be more of a community town.
Torre’s top three: Environment, housing and growth management, and quality of life
Torre: I think environment — it is a top issue. I use environmental leadership and environmental progress as a lens through which all decisions should be made. So, for me, protecting our local environment, creating wildfire resilience and protecting our waters and our open space and public access, I think are very important right now.
No. 2, I think that ongoing housing is still an issue that is only going to get worse in our valley for the locals that live and work here. I want to fix APCHA, and so I’m seeking the ability to be the BOCC representative to the APCHA board, and that is a top priority for me.
And then, thirdly, growth management and protecting our quality of life and our community and our culture, our history and our character, and the amazing, extraordinary place that this valley is, and what it means to the people that live here.
ADN: What do you mean by ‘fix APCHA’? And how are you going to fix APCHA?
Torre: We need some leadership in regulation and restriction changes. The category income caps that are holding people in station and place need to be addressed. The qualifications, I think there’s too much weight on 1,500 hours, and I think that we need to be more community-minded and so there’s other options and opportunities there.
For example, I would love to see, as a part of affordable housing, have a volunteerism requirement.
I want to see us filling more bedrooms and I want to see us approach and go about compliance in a better, more supportive way. I want to see us restore trust in APCHA, I want to see people feel comfortable going to APCHA. I want to see our capital improvement caps raised. I really want to fix the customer service and support, and restore some trust and transparency in APCHA.
ADN: And do you see county commissioner as the only path to that? Are there other ways that you could also [‘fix APCHA’]?
Torre: I think that this is the best opportunity — to win a commissioner’s seat, get on the APCHA board, and start the dialogue and lead the dialogue at the table.
ADN: And then, on growth management, you spoke about quality of life, history, character. The word growth means a lot of different things in a lot of different ways, economic, building, volume. What is your definition of growth, and how you’d like to manage it, or see it managed?
Torre: The easiest example of growth is having job creation for services for a population that doesn’t reside here, but swells our valley, and the lack of associated housing for that job creation.
When we are building — or even when homes are bought for second homes instead of residents — we’re seeing job creation, and those jobs that we’re creating are not being accommodated with housing, so growth then impacts our highways, because you have more commuter traffic for those that live outside the area, because housing is unattainable.
Those then have ripple effects about environment, and quality of life — congestion, traffic impact both quality of life as well as our environment, so these are all growth impacts.