Republican Larry Don Suckla and Democrat Kathleen Curry will go head to head for the Colorado House District 58 seat on Tuesday. Here is a look at a their policies and priorities.
Suckla, a native of Cortez, defeated Montrose County’s J. Mark Roebe by three votes after a mandatory recount in the Republican primary.
District 58 stretches through eight counties, Montezuma to Gunnison counties. Suckla was nominated to be a Republican candidate by a 59.5% vote from the Colorado State Assembly delegates in Pueblo in April.
Suckla told The Journal after his nomination that one his main motivators to run for office was his youngest daughter, who graduated from Montezuma-Cortez High School in May.
“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. I believe that when I was my daughter’s age, 30 years ago, I had a lot more freedoms than she has right now.”
He added that he wishes to help “leave the world a better place for our children.”
Suckla is married to real estate agent Julie Suckla and has two daughters, Smoki and Delta.
He said his “number one priority” is to “defend rural values” and ease the rigid regulations that face business owners. His goal is to help create a community young people want to live and work in.
“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.”
He listed Colorado water rights, private property rights, agriculture, the Second Amendment and others as issues that are important to him. He has also been a vocal advocate for lower taxes, less government regulation and parental rights in school.
“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.
Suckla worked as Montezuma County commissioner from 2012 until his term limit in 2020. In 2017, he was elected by his peers and other commissioners to be Colorado County Commissioner of the Year.
Suckla is also a retired Lewis-Arriola volunteer firefighter and EMT, as well as being an auctioneer. He also has a history of logging, building and landscaping.
Suckla’s website can be found online at www.sucklafor58.com.
Curry has lived in the district for the past 25 years, moving to Gunnison in 1998 after being hired to manage the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy. She graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in water resources planning and management and was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives later.
She was named chair of the House of Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, where she specialized in bills having to do with water, agriculture, oil and gas, wildlife and budget issues.
After leaving the General Assembly she founded a “small” governmental affairs consulting business, as well as selling local foods to continue promoting agriculture in the Western Slope.
She has two grown sons and is married to rancher Greg Peterson.
“I want to serve as a resource and leader on issues related to water, agriculture and natural resources and provide a strong voice regarding sufficient and equitable state spending,” Curry said.
If elected, she hopes to serve on the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee and the House Committee on Appropriations.
Curry listed her priorities as the Colorado River, protecting agriculture and energy, public education, affordable housing and land use planning, reproductive rights and gun rights.
When it comes to the Colorado River and water in the Western Slope, Curry said her priority will be “fighting for equitable, statewide sharing of any future requirements for water deliveries to the Lower Basin for compact compliance.”
She puts an emphasis on alternative energy and regulation of it and gas with ‘transitional assistance for coal-producing areas,” acknowledging that both traditional and nontraditional energy methods play a part in the region.
When it comes to reproductive rights, Curry is considered pro-choice. She spoke of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 as an “unacceptable” “human rights” violation and said she would support a woman’s right to choose what she does with her own body.
Though running on a Democrat ticket, Curry doesn’t have the same approach to guns and the Second Amendment like many of her counterparts do.
Curry said she owns a gun and supports a person’s right to defend themselves, adding that right should not be “in violation of the rights of others,” however.
“The mental health of aspect of gun violence needs to be the focus of the conversation, not the weapon itself, Curry said.
Curry’s campaign website can be found online at www.curryforcolorado.com.
