GILPIN COUNTY– I moved to Gilpin County in 2001. Thr country had just had the most strained transfer of power in the previous century. Remember the hanging chads in Florida? The Supreme Court decision in favor of stopping that count, and handing the very close election to George Bush?

 But the transition took place peacefully, though not without some grumbling. Then came 9/11, and the country coalesced behind Bush – for a while. But that’s another story.

 Here in Gilpin, in 2001 the three County Commissioners represented the same electoral districts in the same flavors as they do now: District 1 had Web Sill, Republican. Districts 2 and 3 were represented by Democrats Craig Nicholson and Ken Eye. I was at every commissioner meeting that year. Nearly all decisions were unanimous.

 I remember one of the commissioners (though I can’t remember which one) saying that these County positions were really nonpartisan – what’s Democratic or Republican about roads or garbage? Indeed.

 A year later, my friend Ben Slinger ran for sheriff against long-time incumbent Bruce Hartman. Though each had strong opinions, there was no negative campaigning – no negative ads or mailers. Hartman won, and Slinger shrugged and threw a barbecue for his supporters.

 Twenty-two years later, a Gilpin resident was just fined for inappropriately mailing out political postcards with negative data about one of the candidates in the Republican primary for Commissioner (see story elsewhere in this issue of The Mountain-Ear). Earlier this year, the Colorado Republican party found itself with two Central Committees, headed by two feuding politicos. The same thing looked for a while like it might happen here in Gilpin.

 Segue to what is happening OUT THERE. From a contentious but ultimately peaceful transfer of presidential administration in 2000, we came to an as-yet-still-debated transfer of power in 2020. There are intimations that this year’s election will also not result in an orderly transition. Political ads at the state and federal levels are overwhelmingly negative. A visitor from another planet would be hard-pressed to figure out exactly what the issues are in this election just from watching TV or internet ads.

 And there are issues. And policies. But seemingly any attempts to address them publicly are lost in the clamor of the ugly ads. This election seems to be run more on emotion than logic. Or, heaven help me, rationality. Emotion has always been a factor in elections, of course – but in 20 years we went from Bush being the candidate most people would like to have a beer with to opponents being childless cat ladies. Just a difference in degree of emotion – but a pretty wide gap!

 Can we here, in our own little paradise (something I think we all can agree on), enter an election from a position of rationality? Or will we, too, be stuck in the morass of emotion that seems to be swamping much of this country? Ballots are out. It’s now up to you.