Ignacio Mayor Clark Craig is setting his sights set on winning the Colorado House of Representatives District 59 election in November.
The Republican candidate will face Democrat Katie Stewart, a member of the Durango School District 9-R board, in the upcoming race.
Craig grew up in Durango and attended Durango High School.
He attended Fort Lewis College for a brief period before finishing his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Craig has served as mayor of Ignacio since 2022, after joining the town’s Planning Commission in 2017. He is also the owner of Meadow Brooke Mobile Home Park in Ignacio. Before those roles, Craig spent 25 years in the oil and gas industry, working alongside his wife, Sharon Craig, across New Mexico, Texas and Canada.
Craig’s campaign has focused on addressing the district’s fiscal challenges, emphasizing the need for affordable living, reducing regulations for land developers and creating an economy that supports young workers’ ability to have financial stability.
Get to know Clark
What kind of car do you drive?
Ford F-350
What was the last vacation you took?
Asheville, North Carolina. Two years ago.
What book are you currently reading?
I prefer to read magazine articles.
Other than the Herald, where is the first place you go for news in the morning?
Varney & Co. on Fox News.
What are your hobbies?
Off-roading in the mountains.
DH: You frequently highlight your wife in your campaign messaging. Why is it important for you to showcase your relationship?
Craig: We’ve always done everything together. We’ve been married 33 years, and it’s just always worked better together. She hears things that I don’t hear, and likewise. And it just works well for us. We’ve been in oil and gas for almost 25 years, and they would move us around about every three years and so we learned to rely on each other. I mean, even we moved to Canada, I got to go to work every day and build relationships. And she was raising three girls at home. And so you just learn to rely on each other.
DH: You are a mobile home park owner. That's something you’ve brought up a bit when discussing affordable housing. Do you support the Colorado Mobile Home Park Act?
Craig: I’m not in favor of it.
DH: Why is that?
Craig: Because from a small-business perspective, from our perspective, we are trying to preserve and protect affordable housing. Clean, family friendly, safe, affordable housing. And I understand not every place is like that. And I think when you look at it from that perspective, there needs to be something done.
But from a free market perspective, should we apply the same thinking to apartment complexes and to single-family units that are being rented? If we put that level of oversight into some of those areas, I think people would say, ‘Wait a minute, that might be a little bit of government overreach.’
The challenge for me is that the regulations that exist, and it’s just not meant for a small business. It was really meant to go after those large organizations, like in Boulder County.
DH: Both you and Katie have spoken about affordable housing. She’s advocated for the mobile home co-ops. With your background in the Regional Housing Alliance and the La Plata Economic Development Alliance, what can you do to help resolve the issue of affordable housing as a potential representative?
Craig: That’s pretty broad, because affordable housing really fits multiple different categories, and mobile home parks are just one component of it. But there’s some legislation out there that has stifled the building of town homes and things of that nature. Last year, there was two pieces of legislation that were introduced.
One would actually try to fix the defects law that’s been in place for many years and the other one was to apply that to single-family homes. You’ve seen it (Colorado’s Construction Defect Action Reform Act) have a catastrophic effect on town homes and the level of affordable housing. Why would we want to enforce that on single-family homes and create that same chaos? I don’t understand. For us, we’re doing some very unique things in La Plata County. Between Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio, all three of them are using different projects. They’re funded differently.
Their approach toward who they’re going to be servicing is different. And I think we should be able to take those to the state level and look at some legislation that would make use of them. I know specifically for Ignacio, there’s legislation that limits what we can do as a municipality, even though we’re being asked to help solve these problems. It’s very interesting that we have to go around the state statute to do it in a certain way.
About this Q&A
The Durango Herald met with opposing candidates running in contested races across Southwest Colorado. Candidates were asked similar questions on the same issues. Their answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
DH: Remind me, one of the complaints about the defects law was that it was creating an overly litigious environment for developers, correct?
Craig: That is correct. Basically, you don’t have any new development of townhomes. They’re just not doing it because there’s just too many issues on the back end.
DH: Part of your campaign has been about advocating for state land management over federal land management. How would state land management benefit this region of Colorado more than federal?
Craig: Well, state’s going to bring it closer to home, and that’s one of the challenges. I think, especially talking to people over at the far western side with the Dolores Monument, we have those things coming down. When a federal agency is managing something in your backyard, I just wish that there was more of the state involved.
I understand, when some states were formed, some had local control and some had federal control. Colorado is just one of those that went in the federal direction. I just like bringing it closer to home. I think our decisions, if we were making them locally, are going to be better suited for our neighbors and the people in Colorado.
DH: During your Club 20 debate with Katie, she challenged you about the personhood bill. You said what defines a life is for the people of Colorado to decide, correct?
Craig: I do believe that this is a state’s decision. I don’t think that should have been a federal decision. Bring it down for the states to decide on. I think it’s more appropriate, and the people of Colorado get to make that decision. We all have our own personal beliefs on that subject, and it can be very polarizing. I get that, but I’m entitled to my personal belief as well. And I think the people of Colorado have spoken, and so it's currently on the books. Where I was going in that particular debate, is that people can do what they want to do.
But why don’t we focus on the birthing and child-rearing and so forth. I see too many times, young families are struggling, and particularly young women are struggling with a decision of that magnitude. They should get all the support we can give them. That’s really where I wanted to try to take this conversation. It’s not going to change in Colorado. The law is what it is and so we’re going to move forward and focus on everything we can do to provide support to build those strong families.
DH: There are some people, likely among your own constituents, who might want you to take a harsher stance on this issue. Why choose such a moderate stance?
Craig: This position is a representative position, and so it’s not speaking for one particular group. We’ve got to be able to represent everybody. And I think that is the key. This is the first time we’ve had to use partisan politics on a topic. We could probably take a poll inside this coffee shop and get five different opinions here.
Realistically, we (him and his wife) take a moderate approach. I know what we would choose for ourselves, what we would hope people would choose, but we don't get to make that choice. I would rather give everybody the most support that we possibly can. That’s why we take that position.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
