In metro Denver county commission races, local concerns are still king. But can Republicans regain their footing?

Jim Wood has a 5-acre farm in Adams County, near Watkins, and he’s noticed that the roads nearby can accommodate his 1977 John Deere 4400 combine. But they aren’t necessarily big or sturdy enough to support the heavier field machinery that many of his fellow farmers and ranchers rely on today.

So Wood, a Republican, has thrown his hat in the ring to run for the county commission.

“We don’t feel like we get representation out here,” said the 41-year-old California native, who has grown industrial hemp on his farm for several years. “We see one-party politics in this state, and everyone’s sick of it.”

But his quest to join local government by challenging District 5’s Democratic incumbent, Lynn Baca, will be a slog: Democrats outnumber Republicans by some 33,000 registered voters in Adams County, and its five-member board of commissioners currently consists of all Democrats.

It’s a common problem for metro Denver Republicans seeking leadership positions in county government. Democrats have increasingly dominated several of Colorado’s most populous counties — including Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson — in recent election cycles after Republicans long had enjoyed an edge on most suburban counties’ boards.

Republicans are eyeing Colorado’s plentiful pool of unaffiliated voters for that push to victory — and in two counties, they’re hoping to capitalize on local tax measures on the ballot to help make their case for more conservatism.

Natalie Menten, a fiscal hawk who served as a Regional Transportation District director for several years, is gunning for Democratic Commissioner Andy Kerr’s seat next month in Jefferson County. Despite her GOP label, she sees a path to the board in a county where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 26,000 registered voters.

A victory, she said, will come from the nearly 210,000 unaffiliated voters who live in Jefferson County, by far the largest segment of the west suburban county’s electorate.

“I think I have a very good chance to take back that seat as a fiscal conservative,” Menten said. “When we’re talking to the voters about pocketbook issues and tax hikes, it’s a resounding no.”

Menten, 54, said she will pin her fiscal-restraint message on her opposition to Ballot Issue 1A, yet another attempt by the county to get voter permission to keep excess tax revenues above the limits established by Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR. Voters rejected similar measures in 2019 and in 2022.

Jefferson County’s TABOR measure would fund road and bridge repairs and would pay for wildfire and flood mitigation and response, addiction and mental health programs and crime prevention programs. Without the retained revenue, the county says it could face budget cuts of more than $12 million next year.

Last year, Jefferson County property taxpayers received an estimated $39.4 million TABOR refund.

“People may lean blue,” Menten said, “but they are going to go fiscal conservative on ballot issues.”

Outgoing state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger is vying to take over an open Jefferson County commissioner seat in District 1 against Republican Charlie Johnson, a trucker and truck driving instructor.

Zenzinger prides herself on not voting in lockstep with her fellow Democrats all the time. She cites her opposition to a 2023 sweeping land use bill, pushed by Gov. Jared Polis, that failed in the legislature as evidence that she’s not ideologically rigid. (Some elements from that legislation passed the legislature on a second try this year.)

If Jefferson County’s commissioner board ends up with three Democrats after Nov. 5, keeping the same 3-0 political dynamic it has today, Zenzinger said she won’t be afraid to look at different approaches to policy challenges.

“I’m coming in with fresh eyes,” she said. “I might make a different judgment about what we need to do.”

Zenzinger, 49, supports the county’s effort to “de-Bruce,” a colloquialism to describe the process by which governments in Colorado — municipalities, counties or the state itself — ask voters if they can opt out of TABOR’s revenue limits. The term is inspired by conservative firebrand Douglas Bruce, who spearheaded TABOR’s passage three decades ago.

Jefferson County is more than $600 million behind on road repairs and infrastructure improvements, Zenzinger said, and the time has come to de-Bruce.

According to Colorado Counties Inc., 13 of Colorado’s 64 counties haven’t gotten voters’ approval to keep additional TABOR-capped tax revenues, including Broomfield, Delta, Pueblo, Weld, Routt and Arapahoe counties.

Like Jefferson County, Arapahoe County is running a revenue-retention measure on its Nov. 5 ballot. The board currently is made up of four Democrats and one Republican, Jeff Baker.

“Even really conservative counties like Douglas County have passed these measures,” Zenzinger said.