On Saturday, Cortez local Larry Don Suckla’s name was put on the primary ballot for Colorado House District 58 in Pueblo.
District 58 encompasses eight counties, from Montezuma to Gunnison counties.
According to Suckla’s Facebook page, he was put on the ballot with 59.5% of the vote from the delegates at the Colorado State Assembly in Pueblo.
Suckla told The Journal that his daughter was one of the reasons he decided to run for a House seat.
“I have a daughter who is a senior in high school, and I don’t like the trajectory of the way that Colorado politics are going, and I want to try to change that,” Suckla said.
“What I’m seeing is the chipping away at freedoms,” Suckla said. “I believe that when I was my daughter’s age, 30 years ago, I had a lot more freedoms than she has right now.”
Suckla is a former Montezuma County commissioner, serving from 2012 until he reached term limit in 2020. He noted that his experience and lessons learned as a commissioner will serve him well as he runs and if he is elected.
“They will say that I don’t have any experience at the state level or the statehouse, but my response to that would be that I didn’t have any experience as a county commissioner. I was elected in 2017 by my peers and some commissioners to be Colorado County Commissioner of the Year,” Suckla said.
In addition to being a former commissioner, Suckla is a retired Lewis-Arriola volunteer firefighter and EMT, as well as being an auctioneer. He also has a history of logging, building and landscaping.
He shared that he can also be found attending Future Farmer’s of America events with his daughter, Delta, who gave a speech at the Colorado State Assembly after her father was put on the primary ballot.
Suckla said that he believes it is his job to help “leave the world a better place for our children.”
Other issues that remain at the forefront of Suckla’s campaign are Colorado water rights, private property rights, agriculture, the Second Amendment and more.
“There are policies and rules that make it harder for people to get water. They have something called ‘demand management’ that pays people not to use water, and then they send it to Lake Powell. I don’t think drying up the Western Slope is in the best interest of the Western Slope,” Suckla said.
While all of these issues are important to Suckla, he said that rural values are at the top of the list.
“My number one priority is to defend our rural values, regardless of party affiliation,” Suckla said.
He also mentioned helping ease rigid regulations on business owners and creating a community where young people want to stay.
“I want our kids to stay here,” Suckla said. “I understand they go to college, but then I want them to come back and live in Cortez, and I want them to raise their families here.”
Suckla and his wife, Julie, who is a real estate agent in Cortez, own a summer ranch in Groundhog, where they run cattle and raise grass hay, winter wheat and Olathe sweet corn.
“It’s time we had a local from down in this area that represents Colorado and the eight counties, but lives here in Montezuma County,” Suckla said.
Suckla invites people who have questions or wish to discuss pertinent issues to visit his office at 311 N. Broadway in Cortez.
Suckla’s website can be found online at www.sucklafor58.com.
The primary vote is June 25. The general election is Nov. 5.
