The Montrose County Republican Central Committee was charged with two things when they met Saturday. Choose someone to fill Rick Dunlap's district 3 county commissioner seat and reorganize leadership. Chad Dunlap, Rick's son, gave them one more mandate when he addressed them prior to their order of business. He told them to change their ways. I known Rick for more than 25 years, he was the same back then as he was when his life abruptly ended the Saturday prior to the meeting. He was a good and kind man whose purpose in life was to serve — and serve he did. In addition to serving on various local boards, Rick served 20 years in the military and 12 years as Montrose County Sheriff. When he passed, he was just beginning to serve as a Montrose county commissioner. In his eulogy for his father, Rick's son Greg shared about the many times they would be out shopping or eating at a restaurant and they had to wait for Rick, who was engaged in a conversation. "Who was that, dad?" Greg would ask him. "I arrested him a few years ago. I just wanted to know how he was doing. Remember, everyone deserves a second chance," Rick would reply. That was Rick, at his essence. Politics can be gross. And the way Rick was treated during both the primary and general elections for county commissioner showed the ugliest side. Rick was a Republican and devoted to his party. But, as Chad pointed out in his address to party leaders, some turned their backs on him. Scott Riba was his primary opponent, who should have stepped down as county chair during the campaign, but he didn't. Claiming he handed his duties over to Vice Chair Charli Oswald and citing precedent set by current state chair Dave Williams when he ran for the 5th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The much-maligned state Republican leader may not be the best example to follow, but conveniently Riba did. When Rick and I spoke about this during the primary he expressed his disappointment in party leadership for not standing up to Riba. He told me it was a primary and primaries can divide the party during contested races. He understood that, but didn't appreciate the deck being stacked against him by the chair. Dunlap would go on to put a shellacking on Riba by garnering 61% of the vote. Riba would step down as chair. He would throw his hat back in the ring for the selection to replace Dunlap. He would lose in the second round of voting to West End candidate Sean Pond by a vote of 25 to 19. Maybe, the committee listened to the younger Dunlap. The 2024 general election went from gross to just plain weird. Though Dunlap easily won his party's nomination, there was a group within his party who campaigned for Independent candidate Trisha Murray. This was a foreign concept to Rick. He would tell me in a conversation during the general election that he would have never broken ranks within his party. Had he lost to Riba he would have supported him. Historically if a Republican commissioner candidate wins the primary, then they're a slam dunk to win the general. Dunlap won with 63% of the vote. Years ago I worked with a Republican commissioner candidate on his primary election marketing. One day he came into the office and said to kill everything. The party made it clear they were supporting his opponent, he wasn't going to waste his time. That's how much influence the party has, but the party who loves to call others in their party RINO's (Republican in name only) turned on their own candidate, Dunlap, within the ranks. Will the real RINO's please stand up and be recognized? Serial Mirror letter writers Bill Bennett and Dee Laird, supposed Republicans, took their non-fact based venom to a new level in their writings during the general election. Stating without evidence that Rick was hand picked by the then county commissioners, all Republicans by the way. What was their grievance against those county commissioners? A difference of opinion in the proposed retirement plan for the sheriff's department. That's a whole different conversation. No one hand picked Rick, he did his due diligence prior to announcing his candidacy, including conferring with friends, family and Montrose citizens. Rick wasn't running against anything, he was running for the opportunity to serve his community once again. Laird and Bennett stooped so low that they accused Dunlap of living a life on the government teat (their words, not mine). What a life of luxury! Twenty years of honorable military service, including two tours during the Vietnam war — the second tour he volunteered to go back. Years of service as law enforcement in the Montrose County Sheriff's department including, as I wrote earlier, three terms as sheriff. Bennett referred to Rick's time in parking enforcement for the city of Montrose as him being a meter maid. Hey Bennett, the 1950s called, they miss you. I guess when Bennett served in the Marines, which he likes to point out often, he was living off the teat as well. Laird's notion that electing Rick to the seat would result in a conflict of interest because Rick's daughter-in-law, Cindy, serves as finance director for the county was ridiculous. He doubled down by writing the county was demoting Cindy to relieve the conflict of interest issue. It was blatantly false and elicited a response by County Manager Frank Rodriguez in rebuke of Laird's claims. Between Laird and Bennett's noise and David White's constant flexibility with facts, our local government wastes time having to respond. My last conversation with Rick came on inauguration night at the Montrose Republican Women's party. Rick expressed to me that he was excited to get into the meat of his new duties and serving Montrose. He praised county leadership, especially Rodriguez, the county manager. He praised Rodriguez for his leadership skills and the esprit de corps he is building within the county. He told me he believed Montrose was fortunate to have so many great leaders within staff and elected officials. He was looking forward to working with both Sue Hanson and Scott Mijares on the board. Rick didn't speak a political language, he spoke from the heart. I always found him to be an open book. I hope the Republican Central Committee, now that they have reorganized their leadership positions, will take Chad's words to heart and make necessary changes in philosophy to stop their self-destructive behavior. During the 2022 primary election I was at a Republican watch party when a Mesa County Republican asked about the Secretary of State race which included the now-convicted Tina Peters. When I told him how many votes Tina Peters had received we both marveled at how close the race was. He responded, "Good lord, why do we hate ourselves so much." The experience of last year's election makes me wonder the same question now, but in a different version: Why do the Montrose County Republicans seem to be allergic to success? Dennis Anderson, publisher of the Montrose Daily Press and Delta County Independent.
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