Larry Don Suckla is running for Colorado House District 58. The Republican from Montezuma County was at the Delta County Fair last week. The former Montezuma County Commissioner spoke to KVNF's Lisa Young about his primary race with former Delta County Commissioner Mark Roeber, his top priorities if elected and his race against Democrat Kathleen Curry.
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LARRY DON SUCKLA: I'm running because I think that we're getting out of hand on, on some of the laws that have been created. And I want to try to repeal some of those laws.
LISA YOUNG: I want to talk just a second about your primary race against Mark Rober former Delta County Commissioner and you yourself, former Montezuma County Commissioner. So what was that race like for you toward the end when you were trying to determine who won?
SUCKLA: This race was ran like I think that all races should be run. I know that that can't happen, but Mark never said anything bad about me. I never said anything bad about Mark. It was all about the issues. I won by three and it could have went the other way.
He could have won by three. It was that close. And so I hope that he'll support me as the nominee and I would have supported him as the nominee as well.
YOUNG: Tell me a little bit about your top priorities or policies that you would like to be a part of in the legislature.
SUCKLA: So I have found out that there is one other person in the Republican party at the House of Representatives that has any ag background. That is sickening to me. I believe that Colorado was built on ag and ranching. My priorities will be water and the farm lifestyle, the ranching lifestyle and to do anything that I can protect that lifestyle, because that is what makes Colorado in my opinion. That's what builds these small communities and, it puts that work first....that driving force of being a responsible. The way that I look at it is every rancher is a CEO, every farmer is a CEO, and you have to treat them differently.
YOUNG: Let's talk a little bit about campaign strategy. What are you doing now? Where are you going? Who are you talking to? What are you hearing from folks? Just a little bit about your campaign on the ground.
SUCKLA: I have a group that is helping me. The group originated in Nucla, Colorado. But I have groups helping me at In every county.
YOUNG: Your opponent is Kathleen Curry. She does have some experience in the legislature, but what do you know about Kathleen and where do you think you differ?
SUCKLA: So Kathleen is in ranching as well. I met Kathleen for the first time last week in Nucla, Colorado. We were at a club 20 meeting together. I went up and shook her hand and introduced myself.
I know I'm the better candidate because she's on the Democrat side, I'm on the Republican side. I believe that government is not the solution. It's a problem.
I believe we need to protect as many of the freedoms that we have. I believe that she's going to go about it where it's the more of the government can help. And I believe I'm going to go about it where it's more of the government can hurt. And that's why my main strategy is to repeal some of these bad laws and, and some of these government regulations. that are hurting farming and ranching.
We've got to get the young people into farming and ranching. The average age is 65 or 70 years old, and we've got to come up with to make it very young friendly to get those kids into the farming and ranching. And I believe that I'm the one that can do that job.
So when I ran for county commissioner, one of the main things was who I ran against . They said that they were the ones that had the experience and that's why they should be the one that was elected instead of me. And I didn't know anything about being a county commissioner. I went ahead and prevailed in that election. In that election, and then six years later, I was named the Colorado Commissioner of the Year in 2017.
I take that same approach with this job. I will be honest, I don't know anything about being a state legislator, but I can take the experience that I had from being a county commissioner. Sometimes it's best to just jump in the swimming pool and learn how to swim because you're going to get to the other side, maybe in a way that somebody with experience didn't figure out because they wasn't fighting for their life.
And I believe that it's going to be to my advantage to do that. I'm a quick study and I will do exactly what I did. I was a very successful county commissioner and I'm going to be a very successful state legislator for the people.
