Former undersheriff Ehlers running for county commission

Posted 10/25/22

Thomas Ehlers has been a libertarian since he could register for a political party. Now he wants to take that small government ethic to the campaign trail as a way, he said, to offer an alternative …

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Former undersheriff Ehlers running for county commission

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Thomas Ehlers has been a libertarian since he could register for a political party. Now he wants to take that small government ethic to the campaign trail as a way, he said, to offer an alternative to the three Republican candidates for Park County commissioner.

Ehlers is running for one of three seats along with incumbents Dossie Overfield and Lloyd Thiel and the top vote-getter in the Republican primary, and his former boss, soon-to-be-retired Park County Sheriff Scott Steward.

Ehlers had to file as a Libertarian candidate prior to the results of the Republican primary, but said both Steward and Overfield would be great to see as commissioners again. The Sage Creek resident said he doesn’t know Thiel.

Ehlers said he understands his campaign is a longshot and that Park County voters generally avoid electing any candidates without an R after their name on the ballot, but nonetheless wants to provide an alternative. 

“I’m retired now. And I’ve been here since 1992,” he said. “In Park County, I worked 27 years with the Park County Sheriff’s Office. And I’m familiar with county government and watching the local politics over the last few years. I thought I’d be an alternative candidate.”

Ehlers said one of the biggest issues he sees in the county is maintaining staffing, especially quality staff.

“In my experiences with the sheriff’s office, young employees were having a hard time finding housing, affordable housing,” he said. “Most have been opting for Powell but even now we have some employees that have lived outside the county because they couldn’t find anything that they could afford and was suitable for their families. So I would like to keep that in mind and address that issue, because I think it’s just gonna get worse. 

“I don’t know how you address that other than trying to be fiscally responsible and provide employees with what they need.”

Ehlers is also focused on the current Park County Land Use Plan creation. The influx of new residents since 2020 that in part caused the county to look at a new land use plan has hit home for Ehlers, who lives in a rural area outside of Cody. 

“We now have had a turnover on our road in five different residences, and they’re all from out of state,” he said. “You know, they’re open about that they came here because they’re all fleeing what they do not like going on in their (West Coast) states. And they see our state as a refuge. And I think we should build upon that. But the problem with that has been, they’ve been pushing the housing prices to the point where nobody can afford working class.”

Ehlers said he was in a way a refugee too, having grown up in a working class part of Lincoln, Nebraska. He grew up in a staunch, Republican family, but because of where he grew up, was exposed to many Democrats as well. At the University of Nebraska he was introduced to the libertarian party, its small government ideals, and he was hooked. 

“It coincided with a lot of my personal feelings and philosophies more so than either the Republican or Democrat Party,” he said. “The problem has always been the Republican and Democrat parties make all the laws on elections.”

He said that has at times made it difficult for libertarian candidates to even get a chance to properly campaign and be a part of the process.

He said if he is elected he’d look at a lot of the money the county currently spends and evaluate how much of that actually has to be spent on the key duties of government. 

In addition to small government, he’d also like to see residents of the county have a smaller impact on wildlife. 

“I understand, people have their own land and they want their piece of heaven,” he said. “We we need to learn to share our heaven with the native species.”

He said that extends to water as well, and making sure people, especially those who live in the county, don’t use up all of the groundwater via too many wells. He said he and his wife live in dry land surrounded by sagebrush and are able to live mostly off the grid, reliant on the county for just some of their infrastructure. But, he said others move out of town and still want all the amenities, which can lead to stress on the land and the neighbors. 

“Humans are that way, we wish to mold the environment into how we want it rather than how it is,” he said. 

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