Four Alamosa County officials announced their re-election bids together on Tuesday during a public announcement at Society Hall.
“We are excited to announce that our team is gearing up for re-election and we’re doing it together,” said Alamosa County Treasurer Amy McKinley. “As a team, we’ve proven that we can work across party lines, respect each other’s perspectives and put the needs of Alamosa County citizens first.”
Alamosa County Sheriff Robert Jackson is running for a fourth term. Jackson was first elected in 2016 and has been serving the community as a law enforcement officer for almost 40 years. The sheriff is the top elected law enforcement official in a county, in charge of public safety and maintaining a detention center.
McKinley is running for her third term. The treasurer is the chief financial manager of a county, also responsible for collecting property taxes, and disbursing taxes to school districts, cities and towns, the county and special districts.
Commissioner Arlan Van Ry is running for his second term. The commissioner role is one of three board positions in the county. Commissioners are charged with setting policy to guide county programs that serve residents and businesses. The Board of County Commissioners is the legislative body of the county government.
County Assessor Jason Duncan will be running in his first election after taking over for long-time assessor Sandra Hostetter wehn she retired at the end of 2024. The assessor in a county is charged with discovering, listing, classifying, and valuing all taxable real and personal property.
For now, all four candidates are running unopposed.
“We believe our teamwork, dedication and commitment to transparency and responsibility make us a strong team,” McKinley said.
Jackson, McKinley and Hostetter decided to announce their re-election campaigns as a team, a choice they made a few elections ago. Now, Jackson and McKinley are including Duncan and Van Ry into the announcement fold.
“The biggest thing to me,” McKinely said, “is the fact that we are all here to serve the public and we don’t worry a whole lot about what party line we’re from.”
Van Ry in his announcement said he is “committed to representing all residents — regardless of political affiliation — and believes that personal beliefs must never outweigh the responsibility to serve the people of Alamosa County.”
Each official was asked about the biggest issues they see facing Alamosa County.
For Van Ry, he said solar power and energy as one of the biggest issues he thinks the commissioners will see in 2026. The Alamosa County Commissioners have been addressing new solar energy projects coming into the Valley. Van Ry said Alamosa County and the greater Valley are approaching the limit of how much solar power we can have. He said he sees conflict with giving land to solar panels and not agriculture. “Another problem with solar is that we’re not getting the benefit from it in the San Luis Valley. All this power that is being produced here is being pumped out.”
Duncan said that his office is facing legislative changes at the state level that are changing assessment rates and how property taxes are evaluated. “They’re changing things again this year,” he said. “The constant changes from the state level have been our challenge.”
Countywide, he said, housing prices are jumping. “Those younger folks and people trying to start families, you know, it’s harder for them to find housing because they just can’t afford to buy.”
For the treasurer’s office, McKinley said the biggest challenge for the county is the incoming revenue streams. November 2025’s sales tax was low and “very scary” and she said she hopes December’s numbers are better. They’ll see that data in February. “If it maintains [November’s] level, unfortunately, we’ll have to make more budget cuts.”
She’s normally been able to provide a strong revenue stream with interest rates, but with federal interest rates changing and going down, McKinley said, “We already know I won’t earn as much interest in 2026 as I did in ’25 and ’24.”
Jackson said public safety and drug issues are at the top of his list. His department works with the Valley-wide drug task force headed up by District Attorney Anne Kelly. He said his new investigator has been “aggressive” with his work in the drug task force.
Fentanyl has started to level off, he said. Methamphetamine is about the same, but he said law enforcement are seeing an increase in cocaine in Alamosa.
He also said he would like to further address the homeless population. “I feel for them but Alamosa County can’t really withstand a whole bunch more of this. We’re at max.”
He would also like to address the mental health issues that his county faces. He said the jail houses many non-violent offenders, people who struggle with different issues and aren’t violent criminals. The county contracts with the city of Alamosa’s Co-Responder Program, which he said has been a huge help.
Next to all these issues, he said, funding is a large priority, but he believes that looking for funding shouldn’t interfere with the sheriff’s office ability to serve the public.
“Budget issues are separate,” he said. “We’ve done everything we can. There’s just not a whole lot more income for us. All of our money comes through the 1A and through the general budget with the county commissioners. They distribute the money to us and they do the best they can.”