County commissioner candidates find a lot to agree on in debate

By Duffy Hayes
Friday, September 21, 2012

If the dozen or so members of the Redlands Rotary Club who attended a lunchtime debate today were expecting fireworks between county commissioner candidates Rose Pugliese and Dave Edwards, they likely left Redlands Mesa Golf Club disappointed.

Both Pugliese, a Republican lawyer, and Edwards, a Democrat and former health care administrator and CPA, talked a lot about how critical a healthy economy and expanding job market is to Mesa County.

“I got into this race because a lot of young people were leaving the valley because there weren’t any jobs,” Pugliese said in her opening remarks. “So I want to look at what we can do at the county level to really help that.”

“One of the things that we need to work on, very very seriously, is the development of new industries and businesses throughout the valley,” Edwards said. He dedicated much of his opening to exploring the possibility of complex hydrocarbon development in our area.

The two also took on issues like Fruitvale and Clifton annexation, the upcoming ballot measure that would legalize marijuana, and proposed plans for the Mesa County Fairgrounds.

Read all about their positions on these and others issues in the Saturday print edition of the Daily Sentinel.