Goodtimes and Fischer Win Convincingly

Goodtimes Is One of
Nation's Highest Ranking
Green Elected Officials

It wasn't a squeaker in San Miguel County.

Incumbent County Commissioner Art Goodtimes swept to victory in his re-election bid this week, capturing nearly 70 percent of the votes cast, and winning all six precincts in the county. And Former Telluride Mayor Elaine Fischer won comfortably over her opponent, Stu Fraser, in her bid for a commissioner's seat.

In keeping with the county's recent history, local voters supported Al Gore over George W. Bush by a vote of 1598 to 1043. Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader took 17 percent of the county vote, with 560 votes.

Goodtimes became one of only 16 Green Party candidates to win election on Tuesday -- most to city councils in California -- and is one of the party's highest ranking elected officials in the nation. Fischer's victory returns one of the region's longest serving elected officials to public office for another four years. Fischer served a total of 12 years on the Telluride Town Council, including nearly six years as mayor, through last November.

Goodtimes' and Fischer's election victories could be interpreted as a triumph of Telluride's left-leaning political establishment. It will leave Republican Commissioner Vern Ebert, midway through a four-year term, in the ideological minority on the board of county commissioners, as Fischer replaces outgoing two-term Democratic Commissioner Anna Zivian.

Goodtimes, following Tuesday's result, can plausibly claim a mandate. His election is notable not only for its size over former County Commissioner Leslie Sherlock, a Democrat, but also in that he is the only commissioner candidate in memory to win every precinct. Goodtimes did not carry his own district in his first run for office four years ago. This time, he won Wright's Mesa, where he lives, by a vote of 263-197, and he won the far West End precinct around Egnar by a vote of 41-15.

In his first term of office, Goodtimes has often talked about the importance to him of serving his rural constituents, who often feel outvoted and misunderstood by the county's far more populous, prosperous and liberal east end.

"I'm happiest that I was able to win in my own district," Goodtimes said Wednesday. "The biggest surprise to me was winning Mountain Village."

Goodtimes won Precinct 6, consisting of Mountain Village, by a vote of 119-52. Countywide, he captured 2169 votes to Sherlock's 975.

Of winning Mountain Village, Goodtimes said, "I hope it means that the county and the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village can begin to work together in a cohesive way. We are not enemies and do not need to be enemies. If 70 percent of the county can unite around a candidate, it means we can have a coordinated effort to solve countywide problems like housing and transportation."

Goodtimes said he it was a "huge disappointment" that Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader captured only three percent of the vote nationwide, but proudly noted that Nader got 17 percent in the county.

Nader's weak showing nationally "underscores the power of the political duopoly to turn progressives and feminist voters against their own interests."

"The Green Party has to be built at the grassroots," he said. "We need to put as much energy into the grass roots as was put in at the national level with Nader."

Elected to the San Miguel County Board of Commissioners from the western Third District of San Miguel County in 1996 as a Democrat, Goodtimes switched to the Green Party in September 1998, following a change in state laws giving ballot status to minor parties in Colorado. He has been active in forming a Green chapter in Telluride, has participated in state and national Green committees, as well as attending the Association of State Green Parties convention in Denver as a Colorado delegate.

In addition to local political office, Goodtimes is currently serving as:
president, Telluride Institute, a local non-profit foundation
Latin teacher, Telluride Mountain School
owner/grower, Cloud Acre Spuds, an heirloom seed potato business
board member, Club 20, regional business lobbying group
vice-president, Western District, Colorado Counties, Inc., state lobbying group
board member, Public Lands Steering Committee, CCI
board member, Public Lands Steering Committee, National Association of Counties
board member, Indoor Air Advisory Committee, NACo
board member, Delta-Montrose Public Lands Partnership
board member, Grant Review Committee, Colorado State Historical Fund
board member, Policy Center for Western Public Lands, University of Idaho
board member, San Miguel Basin Weed Advisory Board
board member, Unaweep Tabeguache Scenic Byway Council
alternate board member, Colorado Rural Development Council
member and co-founder, Sheep Mountain Alliance, local enviro group
member and co-founder, San Miguel Greens, local Green Party chapter
member, Colorado Environmental Coalition
member, Colorado Native Plant Society