Six seek seats on Pitkin County board

ASPEN — It looks as though Pitkin County has a full-field political horse race on its hands with the recent addition of a second candidate in one of the three commissioner districts with open seats in the November election.

Bruce Anderson, who lives in the Little Elk Creek subdivision of Old Snowmass, will challenge incumbent Jack Hatfield of Snowmass Village for Hatfield’s District 4 seat.

Anderson is the sixth and final candidate to file a nominating petition containing at least 100 signatures of qualified electors with the Pitkin County clerk’s office.

Elections clerk Carol Twitchell said Monday that the candidacies have not been formalized yet because none of the petitions had been officially certified, meaning the signatures had not been checked for legal validity — a process that will take a few days.

In District 3, which encompasses Aspen and Woody Creek, the candidates are incumbent Michael Owsley and real estate agent Shellie Roy of Aspen, a former two-term commissioner who was defeated by Owsley in 2004. Owsley is running to keep his seat.

Incumbent Hatfield, who until Monday had the race to himself, is asking voters to keep him on the board.

But challenger Anderson, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and computer expert who has lived in the area since the early 1970s, filed his petition late Monday afternoon.

In District 5, which includes the Crystal River Valley and Redstone, incumbent Dorothea Farris cannot seek re-election because of term limits.

Running against each other for the District 5 seat, according to the county clerk’s office, are George Newman of Emma, a longtime community activist who works as a reservationist, and Delia (Dee) Malone of Redstone, local environmentalist and an Aspen City Council candidate in 2005. Malone lost the 2005 election after facing current council member Jack Johnson in a runoff contest.

jcolson@aspentimes.com