BY JADEN MOUNT
Unlike registered Republican voters in Ellis County who will select who represents their party in the upcoming 1st District Ellis County Commissioner Election, local Democrats will have to wait until the general election to make their pick. Chris Rorabaugh was the only individual to cast his name for the Democratic Party in the commissioner election. He is currently employed by the city of Hays.
The key piece to the Rorabaugh campaign is utilizing revenue from wind farms to fund local schools.
“One thing I think that needs to be pursued, and I don’t know why it hasn’t…we’ve had a wind farm development…five, six years ago,” said Rorabaugh. “And that’s bringing in $800,000 a year to the county. I’ve understood they did stage one of three states and I don’t know what happened to stage two and three. I mean, why could we not use $800,000 to $900,000 a year. But I would really like to push it towards the three public county schools in Ellis County.”
Rorabaugh also says that while he is a Democrat in this race, he is fundamentally a conservative.
“The only reason I’m a Democrat,” Rorabaugh said. “And people are going to find this funny, is my older brother in 1972 said ‘You shouldn’t be voting for Nixon.’ So I filed as a Democrat when I was 20-years-old and I have never changed. I don’t go there, I just don’t. I don’t know politics. To me, this is not a political job. If it was, I wouldn’t be pursuing it. You know, being a conservative, if that’s a Republican thing…I guess I’m a Republican thing, but, I mean, I’m not just gonna throw money at problems.”
Both Rorabaugh and Independent Candidate John Walz will be able to breathe easy as the August 7th primary approaches. Current First District Commissioner Marcy McClelland and former Ellis County Health Administrator Robert “Butch” Schyler will compete for the Republican nomination at the primary.