Gibson shocker — or not

This past weekend, at the county Republican Party assembly, Larimer County commissioner Glenn Gibson failed to get thirty percent of the delegate vote, meaning he will have to petition his way onto the ballot if he wants to run for a third term (which he has said he does). Instead, county surveyor Tom Donnelly grabbed a landslide of the assembly votes and has moved into the pole position to be the Republican candidate for the District Three commissioner position, representing the southern portion of the county.

I've talked to various party members about the possibility of this shakeup, and it can't be described as too much of a surprise based on some officials' distaste for Gibson and his rep as somewhat off-kilter. No one seemed sure before the assembly whether this scenario would go down, but no Republican acted like it was ridiculous, either. Gibson can try to collect signatures to force a primary vote against Donnelly this summer, or decide to ride off into the sunset.

The next big question is, Who will the county Democrats rouse to run? The party's county convention is this coming weekend, and so far no party member has registered with the Secretary of State's office. We'll take suggestions.