BREAKING: Hoffmann dives in for commish race

Democrat Roger Hoffmann has told the Chronicle that he will make another run for the District Three seat on the Board of County Commissioners. Hoffmann lost to current Commissioner Glenn Gibson in 2004 by less than two thousand votes, or just over one percent of ballots cast, and even out-raised his Republican opponent. Hoffmann will officially announce his candidacy by this weekend's Democratic county convention.

Since 2004, Hoffmann has remained active, as a member of the Loveland Affordable Housing Commission and as a member of the RTA steering committee, among other causes. On the housing commission, he supported mandatory regulations to ensure affordable options before city council panned those recommendations and triggered its own house-clearing on the commission, including Hoffmann. He was also among the RTA citizen committee members who criticized officials who tried to deviate from stated objectives and Hoffmann helped knock back the road-building-friendly proposal shopped around by the local chambers of commerce.

This time around, Hoffmann could face a different foe: Tom Donnelly, the county surveyor who received a massive show of support from local Republican Party delegates at last week's county assembly.

Hoffmann expects another tight race and doesn't expect much difference between the platforms of Gibson and Donnelly, even as some Republicans hope Donnelly might carry the cause of "public safety" (read: bigger jail) for Sheriff Jim Alderden.

Hoffmann says he hopes to engage voters energized by the presidential election. According to his own calculations, one in seven county voters didn't vote down the ballot in 2004, meaning they voted for prez but not county commissioners.