Sheriff's supporters aim to eliminate term limits

By Dan MacArthur
Correspondent

A grassroots group decided in January to proceed with a ballot initiative seeking to remove the Larimer County sheriff from term limitations.

Petitions should now be circulating calling for a vote on exempting the sheriff from the two-term limit imposed on most other local and state elected officials, according to Joe Campanella.

He and Ed Haynes will act as co-chairmen of Larimer Citizens for Restoration of Voters Rights. Roberta Futterer will serve as treasurer, according to Campanella, whose wife, Eloise, is the press information officer for the sheriff's department. Haynes, a long-time community activist, is former chairman of the Larimer County Republican Party and unsuccessful candidate for the state legislature.

A retired grocery worker, Campanella said he decided to get involved in the effort because of his regard for Sheriff Jim Alderden and his disdain for term limitations.

"I've been a Jim fan for a long time, but more to the point, I don't like term limits," said Campanella. "I believe for administrative positions it's nonproductive."

Supporters must collect some 10,100 signatures of registered voters by July 15 to place the measure on the November ballot.

Unless exempted from the term limits approved by Colorado voters a decade ago, Alderden's term would end in 2006. So far, Alderden said, voters in 43 of 62 Colorado counties have agreed to exempt sheriffs from term limits. The state also has two combined city-county forms of government without elected sheriffs.