By Frost McGahey

Eddie Flores, who is running County Commissioner for District 4, spoke to voters on Monday, September 14th. Billy Billings is not running again because he is term limited. Flores speech started off with a question.

"Why are the roads so bad in this county? There's got to be a way to improve them. Chip sealing is only a temporary solution," he said. One woman declared that she gets a cracked windshield every time they do chip sealing on her road.

Another woman checked her phone, "I'm reading that the state gets $50 million a month from the sale of marijuana. Is any of that being used for our roads?" Flores replied that was a good question and if elected, he would investigate that.

Flores is the Chief of Police for Western New Mexico University where he's been since 2008. Before that he was with the New Mexico State Police for 18 years. "I always tried to make my encounters with the public a positive experience. I treated everyone with courtesy and respect and that has comeback to help me.

"When walking door to door in a neighborhood to meet voters, I saw two men working on a car," Flores said. "I went up to introduce myself and hand them a card that said vote for me for District 4. One of the men said 'I know you. You gave me a DWI, and I'm going to vote for you.'

"The New Mexico State Police are the best trained of all the departments in the state, I'm proud to say. My daughter is an officer and so is my son-in-law. She had premature twins and at the hospital I saw how hard those babies fought to stay alive. And that's why I can't support the Democrat position on abortion."

One woman asked about his time on school district board where he started the push for security guards at schools. "I got a lot of pushback on that, but I persisted and now we have armed guards. It took a lot of time and effort, but I believe if you have a problem, you've got to come up with a solution."

When asked about crime, Flores said, "District 4 includes the outlying areas of Cliff and the Mimbres. When someone calls for help, it can take an hour for deputy to get out there. That's an eternity for someone in trouble. The sheriff is doing a good job; we just need more deputies."

Eddie Flores is running against Democrat Barbara Bush in November. Early voting starts Tuesday, October 8th at the Grant County Clerk's office, but requests for mail-in ballots are already starting to arrive in voters mailboxes.