Aste to run for Commissioner - Reporter-Herald
Thomas Clayton
Ben Aste, ‘Uncle Benny,’ challenges for Larimer County commissioner seat
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said Aste failed to say that Aste is running for the Republican nomination to be on the ballot in November. Paul Rennemeyer also is seeking the nomination for the chance to face incumbent Jody Shadduck-McNally in November.
Ben Aste, a longtime Loveland business owner, is running for Larimer County commissioner in District 3, challenging for the Republican nomination to represent southern Larimer County on the Board of County Commissioners.
Aste, a Republican who previously ran for the seat in 2020, is back again after what he described as strong interest from the community.
Aste“Since I ran in 2020, folks never quit asking when I would run again,” Aste said. “It was just a never ending question. But then it came to the point in the last year, almost to the point of desperation, not really a demand, but it changed. It was more than just a question, if you will.”
Aste’s campaign is focused, he said, on making the county “reasonable, affordable and sustainable.”
His website, vote4aste.com, emphasizes several topics like traffic congestion, housing availability and natural resource sustainability, but in an interview Thursday he focused largely on the business environment in Larimer County.
Red tape, he said, has made the business environment in the area overly burdensome to those looking to start a business, or maintain and grow an existing one.
“I don’t want to give away too much of my strategy for this, but there is hope on the horizon for citizens,” he said.
Aste, who typically goes by “Uncle Benny,” a nickname he picked up in college that has stuck, has spent the last 29 years operating Uncle Benny’s Building Supplies, a construction material firm. The company originated in Loveland but has since moved to Johnstown.
He said that his firm has diverted considerable waste from the landfill, 4 million tons by his count, instead repurposing it to productive purposes and reselling it on a secondary market.
The existing county landfill has been a frequent topic of conversation among county officials, as it is approaching capacity, and a new one has to be built.
Aste said that his experience diverting waste out of the landfill through his company has given him insight into county operations and is a feather in his cap when it comes to sustainability issues within Larimer County.
He’s spent time in Kenya, Siberia and Mexico, and said that those travels were formative for his understanding of sustainable practices.
“You come back here, and you see the waste, the abundance that we have, that we’ve taken for granted,” he said. “So it made an impression on me. I saw a problem, and I came up with a solution. That’s what I am, I am solution oriented.”
 | Tom Clayton Communication and Media Specialist, Public Affairs |
| Commissioners' Office 200 W Oak St, Fort Collins, 80522 | 2nd Floor W: (970) 498-7005 tcla...@larimer.org | www.larimer.org |