It has been a meteoric rise for Erik Hansen from small-town Iowa farm boy to mayor of the growing city of Thornton.
    Now Hansen wants to take another step forward as the Republican candidate for Adams County commissioner.
    “I like challenges.” he said about the decision to run for the county commission. “I think that Adams County deserves a lot more than they’ve gotten out of their county leadership.”

    He specifically points to the county’s high unemployment rate and recent media reports on questioned land deals and county employees arrested on suspect county bids as proof of the need for change.
    “It’s just time for something new,” he said. “I think the people want fresh leadership that can address the problems they are concerned about. Right now, we’re just not getting it.
    “The question you have to ask yourself is if if you were better off than you were four years ago?” Hansen said. “Most people aren’t. Then, if it’s that the case, you’re not any better off, you should probably vote for change.”
    Hansen, 40, is concerned by unbalanced budget numbers. He points out the 2010 Adams County budget message indicated the county is spending $58 million more than two years ago but bringing in $14 million less.
    “We need to have a serious discussion about making sure we live within our means,” Hansen said.
    Hansen, mayor of Thornton since 2007 and a city council member since 2001, said the city balanced its budget for nine straight years and built a healthy reserve-operating budget. He’d like to see Adams County have the same fiscal discipline.
    “Those are the kinds of things that voters should expect out of the government,” Hansen said. “We ought to run our government effectively. In the same way that an individual person might need to tighten their belt, government needs to do the same thing.”    
    Hansen wants to see county leadership pursue partnerships that would enhance the economic stature of the county. He hearkens back to the partnerships that made the construction of the Denver Tech Center in the early 1970s.
    “We have the same kind of opportunities available in Adams County, particularly in Brighton where you’ve got Highway 85 and (Interstate 76) and you’ve already got a number of really important projects along 76 where the new hospital is,” he said. “We ought to be working to create that kind of business partnership to bring a large corporate development to the 76 corridor.”
    He said that requires a strong county leadership that will reach out across the aisle and bring people together from government and the private sector.
    Hansen believes the current commission lacks that vision.
    “They’ve been there a long time and I know from experience that, after a while, things get a little bit stale,” he said. “The economy has changed, the world has changed in the last few years and you have to be responsive to that as well as flexible as to how you approach it.
    “The same old things that worked five years ago aren’t going to work today,” he added.
    “If you work on things that the citizens care about, if you work on big problems that the county has like unemployment, like infrastructure, like the budget, then you’re going to find lots of common ground with people,” he said. “I’ve got a history of doing that and I will continue to do that as a commissioner.”