Las Animas County Sheriff Jim Casias will announce a bid for the state Senate on Wednesday, challenging Republican Sen. Larry Crowder in a key swing seat that could determine which party controls the chamber.
Sheriff Jim Casias
The Democratic sheriff is a top recruit in the party’s plans to regain power in the Senate, where Republicans took a one-seat majority in the 2014 elections and served as a blockade for numerous bills backed by the Democratic House and Gov. John Hickenlooper.
Casias, 67, is one of the 55 sheriffs Hickenlooper in 2013 to fight tougher gun control laws, among those dubbed “heroes” . He also served as president of the County Sheriffs of Colorado Association in 2014.
He is expected to make the announcement at 4:30 p.m. at the county courthouse and begin a tour of all 16 counties in the sprawling southeastern Colorado district. Los Animas County is the second largest in voting population (behind Pueblo) and the most Democratic.
The Senate District 35 seat is one of three Democratic targets for unseating an incumbent GOP lawmaker. And Casias entry into the race more than a year before the 2016 elections illustrates the pitched battle to come between the parties for the chamber’s gavel.
“2014 was the best year Republicans have had in three decades and they were only able to take a one-seat majority by the skin of their teeth,” said Andrew Short, the executive director of the Democratic Senate Campaign Fund in Colorado. “If Republicans want to hold onto their majority, they’ll have to pry it out of Sheriff Casias’ cold dead hands.”
Casias, a lifelong Las Animas resident and former firefighter and miner, expects to paint Crowder as out-of-touch with the district and his campaign is prepared to contrast the Alamosa Republican’s vote in favor of pay raises for lawmakers with another in favor of Senate Bill 80, a measure Democrats contend would kill the state employees pension system, known as PERA.
“We’ve had some politicians riding around here in southern Colorado proclaiming to stand up for us, but then, when they get to Denver, they forget where they come from and turn around and vote to gut retirement benefits for our corrections officers, teachers, state troopers, and other public employees who work hard in southern Colorado,” Casias said in a statement, previewing his expected remarks at the announcement.
To further distance himself from Denver, Casias is likely to make his challenge of the gun laws a prominent point in his campaign. He supports a repeal of the large ammunition magazine restrictions but supports background checks, Short said.
Crowder took the district with a in 2012 against Democrat Crestina Martinez. He is seen as a moderate member of the Senate caucus, which is split between ardent conservatives and more traditional Republicans. He supported the 2013 expansion of Medicaid coverage for the poor, earning the ire of some in his party, but he opposed Democrats efforts this year to use state money for a contraceptive program that helped reduce the state’s teen pregnancy and abortion rate.
Given his stance on guns and energy issues, Casias is likely to diverge from his party on major initiatives. Asked about his gun stance and how Democrats will respond, Short said “many people in Southern Colorado have a very different approach to guns than Democrats on the front range.”
