Missoula County Democrats have selected three individuals to vie for the seat being vacated by current Missoula County Commissioner Nicole ‘Cola’ Rowley.

They are Missoula City Councilor Stacie Anderson, current Chair of the Missoula County Elections Advisory Committee, Denver Henderson and Juanita Vero, Chair of the Board of Directors for Montana Conservation Voters.

Communications Director for Missoula County Democrats, Lisa Davey described how the three finalists were chosen.

“The committee is allowed to vote for up to three of the eleven finalists,” said Davey. “We asked for nominations and we nominated everyone who returned the questionnaire. There were no nominations on the floor. I think people chose them because of the values that they displayed and the people that supported them and they way that they answered our questions.”

Davey was enthusiastic over the three selections for commissioner.

“I am so proud of the slate of candidates that came forward,” she said. “We had 11 qualified people in the room and someone described it as a wealth of riches to be able to in a short period of time, have 11 people in Missoula County who would be qualified to be a good commissioner, who really care about the people in the county and are trying to make Missoula a better place, really speaks well about our community as a whole.”

Davey described the next step in choosing a new commissioner.

“Commissioners Strohmeier and Slotnick will actually make the decision,” she said. “They are sending out yet another questionnaire to the three nominees. Those questionnaires go out on June 7th and they have interviews scheduled for June 11th and they plan to announce on June 13th.”

If Strohmeier and Slotnick do not like any of the three nominees, the central committee will send three new nominees.

Rowley is resigning her seat as of July 1 to take an administrative leadership post in Gallatin County.

More From 94.9 KYSS FM