Courtesy photo
Many strange memories made over the past four years of being a valley journalist popped into my head over my Tuesday morning coffee.
Shouldering through a gang of TV reporters and camera operators in Glenwood Canyon just to harvest one comment from U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. That one time Rep. Lauren Boebert denounced me as “an activist” over the phone. Foolishly asking Gov. Jared Polis to predict the score of an Avs playoff game. My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell crashing a Garfield Re-2 School Board meeting via Zoom.
Goes to show what a fascinating political ecosystem the Western Slope has. And, to my delight, each minute continues to get weirder and more exciting. Election night in Aspen, for instance, did not disappoint.
The Aspen Times photographer Austin Colbert clunked through a valley snowstorm in his old Jeep to snag watch party photos of Snowmass Mayor Bill Madsen and challenger Alyssa Shenk. He later gained entry into Belly Up for snaps of Congressional District 3 candidate Adam Frisch. Meanwhile, my beat reporters frantically typed out pre-writes and predictions. Everyone tried not to ruminate heavily over Trump and Harris by distracting themselves with local issues.
One major rumble in the alpine jungle was the Aspen airport, having sat under the proverbial microscope for years. Verbal jousts continually erupted ’round town as the Federal Aviation Administration aimed to allocate millions to update what many argue is a deteriorating runway.
Some longtime locals are adamantly opposed, arguing this runway widening effort will invite bigger planes, inundate existing and future infrastructure, and further blemish this region’s pristine character. The other side contends the valley and its precarious pockets are doomed if Aspen airport contradicts FAA standards.
In comes this November’s ballot questions. Fueled by diligent benefactors, local media outlets absorbed massive advertising campaigns, public relations sharks, letters to the editor, and evocative opinion pieces — all supporting or opposing whether Pitkin County residents shall inherit the responsibility of controlling sway over an 8,006-foot-long, 100-foot-wide asphalt surface.
The nonstop action prompted friendly wagers and knitting-circle gossip to permeate The Aspen Times newsroom on Tuesday night. Over homemade green chili and, later, a couple fresh pies from New York Pizza, reporters and editors relentlessly poked fun at the entire scene. And while the war waged on for the national political front, we journalists waged war on ourselves, joyfully getting into firefights using two high-powered Nerf guns I successfully ganked from the Glenwood Springs Post Independent office following one recent night of painting the town red.
All the while we kept close watch on the Colorado Secretary of State website, CNN, and Fox, eagerly waiting for a new batch of election results just so we could ambush local politicians and office hopefuls to solicit comment — of course under the duress of yet another soft deadline.
By 8:16 p.m., I was pulled away from this pandemonium. Aspen Daily News columnists Lo Semple and Roger Marolt invited me for a broadcast interview on GrassRoots TV. Sporting a thrift-store blazer, I jogged seven blocks through hellacious snowfall, only to be greeted by a mini fridge chock full of India Pale Ale. The studio was also accompanied by a raucous “green room” crowd that included Aspen Mayor Torre, Pitkin County Democratic Chair Betty Wallach, Pitkin County Republican Chair Jon Kelly, Romero Group President Dwayne Romero, Aspen City Council member John Doyle, and others.
On set, with old skis upright behind me and an American flag draped across the background, sweat poured down my forehead as I nodded to on-air questions like a disengaged teenager winging an advanced placement lecture. But all, miraculously, turned out well. Semple and I conversed over newspaper operations while Marolt quipped about his old days at The Aspen Times.
Fifteen minutes later I found myself walking down the street beside unopposed Pitkin County Commission candidate Jeffrey Woodruff. We discussed wildfire mitigation as we trudged through thick snow to the Hotel Jerome J-Bar. Opening the joint’s door, I discovered another unopposed Pitkin County Commission candidate, Greg Poschman, quietly drinking red wine beside his wife, Maureen, SkiCo’s Michael Miracle, and a few others.
This entire experience was such a politically romantic reprieve for me, a drifter journalist who had spent the past 10 years working in obscure newsrooms across places like rural Wyoming, South Dakota, and Minnesota.
But the butterflies didn’t last.
By the time I got back to the newsroom, we had gone to Defcon-4. More batches rolled in, The Aspen Times reporters manically phoned candidates and edited photos, and everyone did their best to update all the results before the highly patient pressmen in Gypsum began grinding their teeth.
Soon enough, the clock inched closer to midnight. Exhausted, sleep deprived, the paper out to press, we all drove home through the pitch black, in another blinding blizzard, hoping to gain a few hours of sleep before coming back to the office to do it all over again.
The next day’s paper was but another memento to add to a long list of strange and exciting times of a valley journalist.
Ray K. Erku can be reached at (970) 429-9120 or rerku@aspentimes.com.