A handful of last-minute filings last week shook up the previously sleepy races for Teton County Commission and Jackson Town Council.
In another surprise, sheriff’s deputy Eric Snow announced a campaign for sheriff as a Republican while previous Democratic challenger Alberto Rojas, a Jackson police officer, withdrew his name on Friday.
After serving as a patrol deputy since 2022, Alta resident Eric Snow announced a campaign for sheriff as a Republican. (Courtesy)
Reached by phone, Rojas declined to comment on his move. Patrol deputy since 2022, Snow said in a press release that his campaign would be focused on “public safety, immigration enforcement and drugs” among others.
Gabriel Koerber, head concierge at The Cloudveil hotel, filed Friday to run for council. If no write-in candidates make it through, he’ll move on to the general along with three other nonpartisan candidates: former councilor Jessica Sell Chambers and sitting councilors Jonathan Schechter and Alyson Spery.
On the county side, two Republicans and unsuccessful 2024 commission candidates filed Friday: driving instructor Vicky O’Donoghue and art dealer Melchor Dylan Moore. And Commission Chair Mark Newcomb is running after all.
Newcomb joins two other incumbents and three challengers, including Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue, a Democrat, who also decided to run last week.
The town council race is nonpartisan and will be decided in November, after four advance from the primary.
The county races for assessor and coroner are also contested. Three coroner’s deputies are vying for the top job, as is the director of the valley’s lone funeral home.
What the candidates have to say
Sell Chambers, 44, said she is in a “totally different” mental state than when she ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2024. She served on the town council from 2021 to 2024. During that time, she said she had reservations about more than 200 affordable homes planned for 90 Virginian Lane.
As that proposal now languishes, Sell Chambers is looking to take advantage.
“It seems like everybody wants to build housing at any cost rather than fund health and human services,” she said in reference to the town’s previous plans to cut back on some budgeting. “For me, that’s unacceptable.”
Councilors have since backed away from those cuts and kept funding flat.
Spery, 41, is looking to build on her work over the past year and a half. She was first appointed in early 2025. This will be the filmmaker’s first campaign.
Gabriel Koerber is a political newcomer running for town council. (Evan Robinson-Johnson / KHOL)
“I don’t think people know who I am or that I’m on the council,” she said. “Certainly, when I step into some of my other positions, nobody has any clue.”
Spery also works as a bartender, wedding DJ and bookkeeper for her husband’s construction business. (Spery’s husband, Pete Muldoon is a volunteer contributor for KHOL). She’s looking forward to hearing more directly from constituents about “what’s important in this community.”
First elected in 2018, Schechter, 69, is seeking a third term to continue focusing on the environment, affordable housing, public safety, transportation and the economy.
In his campaign announcement, the economist touted helping create the first ecosystem stewardship administrator position in the nation.
Koerber, 35, is new to politics and said he was reluctant to run. Working in hospitality and raising four kids keeps him busy enough. But he was tired of seeing the same names year after year.
“I was hoping for somebody else to step up and just be a new voice or be somebody to challenge what direction we’re going in,” he said.
Since moving to Jackson when he was 16, Koerber has worked a variety of “fun” jobs. But the town is becoming an increasingly difficult place to live and work, he said.
Dr. Brent Blue says he doesn’t want his time in public service to be done after serving as coroner for 12 years. (Courtesy)
“It’s always been tough here, traffic is struggling, but we lose a little bit of our identity and a little of our Jackson culture — that Western, last of the West style — every time some massive infrastructure comes up.”
Blue said he decided to run after talking with a few trusted friends about his frustrations with the current board. He was unaware that Newcomb, who had previously said he wouldn’t run, had changed his mind.
Newcomb, 59, said he ultimately wanted to see through the budget and other long-range plans.
“I really hesitate to say I know what I’m doing and that’s why I need to be involved,” Newcomb said. “I just know that for six years as a planning commissioner and for my time as a county commissioner, I am very driven to understand the comprehensive plan, to understand land development regulations, and to understand how they interact.”
The two additional challengers are Ali Dunford, 36, the founder of Hole Food Rescue, and Karyn Chin, 41, the co-founder of political consultancy Mountain Movement Strategies.
Dunford had previously wavered in her decision to run but said the support of campaign managers Carolina Grave and Lisa Lent pushed her over the edge.
Blue was also unaware of their campaigns. He said he ran once for county commissioner shortly after moving to Teton County in the late 1980s.
Now 75, and after serving a dozen years as county coroner, he said he’s not done with public service.
“There’s nothing wrong with some fresh blood,” he said.
This article has been updated to include comments from Koerber. — Ed.
