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Don Suppes, chairman of the Delta County Republican Party, has told the DCI that he will not seek re-appointment to that post.

The county's Republicans were scheduled to hold their regular reorganization meeting Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Suppes said he intended to make his announcement at that meeting, which took place too late for coverage in this week's DCI.

Suppes said he is stepping down from the party chair post because he plans to form an exploratory committee and investigate a possible run for the State Senate District 5 seat, currently held by term-limited Gail Schwartz of Snowmass.

"It would not be appropriate for me to remain chairman of the party's central committee," Suppes said, "while I am involved in exploring a possible campaign of my own."
Suppes is in his second term as mayor of Orchard City, a position which is term limited in 2014.

Suppes said his reasons for exploring a run for the District 5 seat are simple: "I am fed up with trying to stand up and get Denver and Washington, D.C. to hear me from here in Orchard City. I think they will be able to hear me better from Denver," he said.

Suppes said he is highly critical of and opposed to the growing practice of un-elected bureaucrats on both the state and federal levels creating expensive, unfunded mandates for individuals and local governments. "This is killing the U.S.," he said, adding, "Someone needs to start standing up against it."

An example of bureaucratic abuse cited by Suppes is a requirement that bidders for state work submit their bids on a physical iPad device, and the bidder, successful or not, does not get the iPad returned to him.

The state's rule says in part that potential contractors "shall submit proposals using the Apple iPad 2 (or newer) ... iPads will not be returned at the end of the evaluation and will become property of the department ... the (potential contractor) will submit three (3) additional copies on a flash drive for record keeping."

Suppes said, "That is some state bureaucrat creating a ridiculous rule. Elected officials are supposed to protect the public from that kind of bureaucratic abuse, and they're not."

Suppes emphasized that he is not announcing a candidacy for the District 5 seat. "There are seven counties in the district and I have talked to people in some of them. I will need to have conversations with people in all of the counties before making up my mind," he said.

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