Eagle County Sheriff Primary: Rebecca Anderson Leads Jason Boston

Rebecca Anderson is winning. But don’t mistake the early numbers for a coronation.

With 8,412 ballots counted out of 35,096 active voters, Anderson holds a 57.8% to 42.15% lead over Jason Boston in the Democratic primary for Eagle County Sheriff. That’s a 1,020-vote cushion. It’s enough to feel comfortable. It’s not enough to sleep easy.

The turnout is sitting at 23.97% as of 8 p.m. Tuesday. That’s a lot of people still sitting on their hands. The final result is nowhere near set.

Anderson, 50, lives in Gypsum. Boston, 48, lives in Gypsum. They both went to school in Gypsum. They both want to kick incumbent Republican James van Beek out of the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office. They both say van Beek mismanaged the department so badly that high-quality deputies walked away.

The difference? Anderson spent 17 years inside the beast. Boston spent time in the Army, then in Basalt and Aspen, before landing as a chief district attorney’s investigator for the 5th Judicial District.

Anderson is a Vail Police sergeant. She leads the crisis negotiation team. She handles K-9s. She was a field training officer and a master patrol deputy for the sheriff’s office from 2005 to 2022.

Boston started in the Aspen Police Department after serving overseas in a U.S. Army infantry division. He was a resident deputy in the Basalt-El Jebel area. He worked briefly for the Basalt Police Department. Then he moved up to the 5th Judicial District, which covers Eagle, Summit, Clear Creek, and Lake counties.

The campaign has been surprisingly polite. Anderson said she’s grateful for the support. She said voters from both "Team Boston" and "Team Anderson" have been open to hearing her out. It’s been positive.

But there’s a catch. Voters aren’t just listening to their platforms. They’re digging for dirt.

“It’s been tough trying to keep it a positive sort of spin on things because a lot of people want to hear the negative and try to have me go into some of the negative things that I experienced at the sheriff’s office,” Anderson said.

That’s the story here. Anderson has the insider knowledge. She knows the deputies. She knows the culture. She knows what went wrong when van Beek was at the helm. But she’s struggling to package that experience without sounding like she’s just complaining.

Boston has the investigative background. He’s looked at the county from the outside, from the prosecutor’s desk. He’s got the Army discipline. He’s got the police academy pedigree. But he doesn’t have the 17-year tenure in the specific office he’s trying to run.

The voters seem to prefer the insider right now. Anderson’s lead is nearly 16 percentage points. That’s significant. It’s not a statistical tie. It’s a mandate, provisional as it is.

But look at the turnout. Less than a quarter of active voters have cast a ballot. That leaves a massive block of undecided or undecided-leaning voters. In a county where the general election is always a battle between a entrenched Republican and a Democratic challenger, this primary sets the stage. If Anderson wins, she brings the institutional memory. If Boston wins, he brings the prosecutorial eye.

Right now, the memory is winning.

Anderson announced her candidacy in January. Boston announced his in February. It’s been a tight race. It’s been a respectful race. It’s been a race where the voters are demanding more than just a name on a ballot. They want to know who will fix the work environment for the deputies left behind.

Anderson says she wants to make it a better place for them. She says she’s trying to show people what changes need to take place. She’s not just running to oust van Beek. She’s running to rebuild.

Boston is running to investigate and reform. He’s running to bring a different perspective.

The preliminary results favor the rebuilders. They favor the insider. They favor the woman who knows the badge from the inside out.

But 23.97% is a small sample. The rest of the county is still watching. Still thinking. Still deciding.

Anderson is leading. But in Eagle County, leading at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday isn’t the same as winning on election night. The votes are still coming in. The margin is still razor-thin in the grand scheme of things.

The voters here don’t just want a sheriff. They want a fixer. And right now, they think Anderson is the one who can do it.