Graphic by Noah Dawson
By Noah Dawson
With the November general election approaching fast, one local race on my radar is Potter County Judge. This race has quickly become interesting, as write-in candidate Tom Warren has emerged as a serious challenger to incumbent Nancy Tanner, with Warren recently receiving the endorsement of the Potter County Republican Party.
With this development, I thought I would run down a few of the notable moments from Nancy Tanner’s time in office which may have brought about the Potter County GOP turning against her.
First and foremost is her record on taxes. When Tanner entered office in 2015, the county’s property tax rate was $0.63402 per $100 of valuation. By 2021, it had gone up to $0.70595. The rate has come back down a bit since then, but, due to increases in property appraisals bolstered by inflation, tax bills are still expected to be higher. And, even with the rate having gone down from last year, it’s still a higher rate than when Tanner first entered office.
Where is that money going? A large part, it seems, went to a controversial plan to landscape a downtown lot owned by the county. While landscaping may not seem controversial, it’s worth noting that, even as the project broke ground, the county knew it was planning on bulldozing the landscaping to build a brand new courthouse. Throughout all of that, Nancy Tanner was defending the projects. In 2020, she told Channel 7 the following:
“I don't think I did anything wrong. There was no lesson to be learned here. It was what we chose to do with the allocated money.”
Additionally, similar to the fiascos the City of Amarillo has seen recently with projects to replace City Hall and add to the Civic Center, the courthouse project is backed by debt that was never even placed on the ballot for voter approval. Why did Nancy Tanner not give voters a chance to vote on the project? In her own words:
“If we do a bond election, it could fail.”
She has since doubled down on refusals to be transparent, blocking people who comment on Facebook asking questions.
Nancy Tanner’s bad record doesn’t end with her tax and waste agenda.
In 2016, after Attorney General Ken Paxton called for courts to allow the open carry of firearms. Nancy Tanner refused. What part of the right to bear arms does Nancy Tanner fail to comprehend?
Defending her opposition to the second amendment, Tenner cited an instance of an attempted shooting in 2008 that involved a person on probation grabbing an officer’s gun. How she thought this justified trampling the rights of law abiding gun owners is a mystery.
With her opposition to gun rights, I can only wonder why it took so long for the Potter County GOP to step up against her.
Maybe the straw that broke the camel’s back was Nancy Tanner’s decision to pass over Republican firefighter Blair Schaffer when choosing who to appoint to a vacant spot on the Potter County Commission last year. Instead, she appointed Democrat Robert Ruiz.
Or, perhaps, it was the fact that news broke last week about a judicial ethics complaint being filed against Tanner.
Plus, all of that only begins to scratch the surface of Tanner’s record. I haven’t even gone into her opposition to paper ballots or her support for tax abatements.
In any case, it is clear that the Potter County GOP made the right call endorsing Tanner’s opponent. Not only is Tom Warren free of Tanner’s baggage, he’s also a hard working successful businessman with an actual record of pushing small government conservative ideas. If any voters have familiarized themselves with Tanner’s record and still feel she is the best choice, they are free to support her. However, if anyone who calls themselves a Republican or a conservative thinks she is the best choice, they are probably just lying to you.