Commissioner Daneya Esgar launching campaign to remain on Pueblo BOCC

Daneya Esgar served Pueblo for four consecutive terms in the Colorado House of Representatives from 2015 to 2023, but she doesn't want to be done with public service.

Local Democrats selected Esgar in May 2023 to serve the remaining term of former Commissioner Garrison Ortiz, who resigned from his elected post to be the chief financial officer at Colorado State University Pueblo.

She will now be running for elected office for the first time since 2020 for a four-year term as a Pueblo County commissioner. She filed campaign paperwork with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office on Nov. 27, 2023, and is planning on an official announcement event this week.

Why Esgar wants to stay in public office

Esgar is running in District 2, which includes the South Side, parts of Pueblo West and extends to the southwestern corner of the county. County commissioners are required to live in the district they represent, but all Pueblo County voters decide on the representatives.

Esgar was sworn in on June 1, 2023., after besting Mark Carmel in the selection committee composed of Pueblo County Democrats.

She told the Chieftain that she has been pushing for more transparency in county government and improved working conditions for county employees. Childcare for Puebloans, including public employees, is also a concern for Esgar, as is mental and behavioral health care, especially for youth.

“I'm having a lot of conversations now about how we can move forward and doing more for the people that need it in Pueblo County and I'm not ready to stop that work,” Esgar said.

She added that she has done some work on agriculture and water rights at the state level but has been learning about how county government can help local farmers and ranchers.

As a state representative, Esgar said she enjoyed working for people in her hometown of Pueblo and is seeing how she can have more of an impact as a county commissioner.

"In 2014, when I first decided to run for state representative, it wasn't about being a state representative: it was about making sure Pueblo's voice was heard at the statewide level when decisions were being made," Esgar said. "Realizing here as a Pueblo County commissioner, I have even more direct impact on the constituents of Pueblo County than I would at the state level, is even more valuable to me."

Who else has filed to run for county commissioner?

As of Jan. 4, Esgar was the first and only Democrat to file to run for county commissioner in District 2.

Republican candidate Paula McPheeters filed to run for the seat in August 2023. McPheeters, the only GOP hopeful who has officially filed for the district to this point, currently works as the director of grant compliance at Pueblo Community College.

McPheeters was a founding member of the local conservative Christian advocacy group, Forging Pueblo. She previously told the Chieftain that she resigned from the board of directors last summer, not because she disagreed with the organization’s vision but to focus on her campaign.

McPheeters reported raising nearly $5,000 in monetary contributions in the first campaign finance report she filed, which was current through Oct. 27, 2023. The next campaign finance reports are due on June 4.

Pueblo voters will also decide on the future of the District 1 commissioner this year.

The incumbent, Epimenio “Eppie” Griego, has filed to run for his second term as an unaffiliated candidate. Griego was originally elected as a Democrat but left the party after facing backlash for allegedly saying an anti-gay slur to a city councilor, which Griego has denied.

Two Democrats — Darren “Woody” Percival and Miles Lucero — and Republican Steven Rodriguez are also in the race.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com. Please support local news at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Daneya Esgar running for full term as Pueblo County commissioner