Borchers Outpolls Guilliams in GOP Vote for District 2 Commissioner

Political upstart Kristie Borchers scored an impressive victory in Tuesday’s Hinsdale County Primary Election when she outpolled her District 2 Commissioner rival David Guilliams by a vote of 181 to 156.
Borchers now advances to the November 6 General Election where, barring the appearance of an unforeseen write-in candidate, she will run unopposed for District 2 Commissioner. No Democratic candidates are running for Hinsdale County Commissioner.
The deadline for registered Hinsdale County voters to file as a write-in candidate is July 19; residents of Hinsdale County who have been registered Unaffiliated for at least a year may be listed on the General Election ballot, if they file an affidavit and circulate a petition no later than July 12.
Kristie Borchers’ surprise victory is something of an upset given the fact that she was not endorsed by the incumbent District 2 Commissioner, Cindy Dozier, who retires from office after completion of her second term in January next year. Borchers was also not endorsed by the Hinsdale County Republican Party and failed to secure the required 30 percent-minimum delegate vote at the party’s March 13 assembly.
Undeterred, she circulated a petition among the county’s GOP voters and was listed as a commissioner candidate on the Primary Election ballot after successfully submitting a petition with the signatures of 39 registered county voters on March 23.
Borchers is well known as Hinsdale County grant writer and executive director of Downtown Improvement & Revitalization Team, as well as a myriad of other local organizations with which she is involved.
Guilliams, who was endorsed as a District 2 Commissioner candidate by Hinsdale County Republicans at their assembly last March, is an affable South End rancher and outfitter whose wife’s family’s tenure in the Upper Piedra Valley dates back to the 1890s. As a candidate, Guilliams campaigned in Lake City on an intermittent basis, including an election swing with his wife through rural portions
of the county earlier this month.
Both Guilliams and Borchers were a near-constant presence at Hinsdale County Commissioner meetings in recent months. Both candidates attended last week’s Commissioners’ meeting in the South End of the county, Guilliams addressing the commissioners to thank both the county board and road & bridge crew for a “job well done.”
An enormous, near-county-wide district, Hinsdale County District 2 covers a wide swath of the county’s rural regions, including the South End, Cathedral and Upper Io Grande, as well as extending into suburban Lake City which is Borchers’ residence.
The district was traditionally represented by South End residents but has been filled by candidates from the Lake City area and Upper Lake Fork since 1991 when South End rancher Ed Toner was recalled from office.