District 2 County Commissioner

Miguel Alfonso Romero Jr. (unopposed)

Age: 55 Occupation:

Der Markt, meat cutter; Questa High School, boys basketball coach and track head coach

Education: Peñasco High School, graduate; UNM, some classes

Political experience: Taos County Sheriff’s Office, former sheriff elected to two terms Political party: Democrat

Charged or convicted of a crime (more serious than a traffic ticket):

Social media or website: none

Miguel Alfonso Romero Jr. is running unopposed for Taos County Commissioner District 2, and said he’s hopeful he can take the wheel previously held by his friend, former Questa Mayor Mark Gallegos.

Romero, a Democrat, has lived in the Village of Questa for 33 years, and said he knows the community well. His Republican opponent, Juan Cisneros, dropped out of the race.

“A lot of kids move off, they go to college, they want to move back, but it’s getting harder and

No

harder for them,” said Romero, who worked in the Taos County Sheriff’s Office beginning in 1990 and was elected sheriff two times, in 2007 and again in 2011.

“I believe that a department is as good as the employees you have,” said the 55-year-old Romero. “The employees are the ones that are going make the county move the way it does.”

Romero retired when Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe took the helm in 2015. Hogrefe is now also retiring. Romero’s son, Kelly Romero, joined the sheriff’s office in 2017.

Romero said he wants to raise the pay and benefits package for county workers. “The paramedics — they’re not considered public safety,” he said. “They work some miserable hours, they see some miserable stuff.”

He also wants to lift regulations on mobile homes, an issue that many say has further exacerbated the tensions between the haves and the have-nots in Taos County.

“The county’s got to work with the state to find a means where people can move back, because nobody can move back and do a lot of the stringent stuff that they require,” he said.

Although technically retired, Romero works as a meat cutter at Der Markt Food Store in Red River, and also coaches boys basketball and track & field at Questa High School.

Romero said the key to serving the community is to listen to its members.

“People have already said, ‘We need this, we need that.’ Well, yes, we can see what we can do. I can’t promise it. But we’re openminded,” he said. “Same thing with other parts of the county. It’s something that takes five commissioners, or the majority of commissioners, to make an approval. As long as you can work with everybody, and it benefits the county, not just myself.”