Attorney general candidates see drought, Trump as issues

By Liam Hibbert
The Center Square

Colorado attorney general candidates have called this year’s race the most important in the state’s history.

The open race comes amid an unprecedented state drought and legal battles with the federal government.

Four Democratic candidates and two Republicans are listed in the June primaries to replace the term-limited Phil Weiser, a Democrat who’s running for governor. The winners of the two primaries will face each other in the Nov. 3 general election.

“I think we’re really at a crossroads for the state of Colorado,” Democratic candidate Michael Dougherty told The Center Square.

Dougherty, the current Boulder County district attorney and a former state deputy attorney general, named several reasons for concern: the state’s water crisis, hostile relationships with Republican President Donald Trump and Congress’ ineffective use of the Constitution’s checks on the balance of power.

“And with all those things together, that’s why I say this race is more important than ever in this office,” Dougherty said. “To me, it is the most important one on the entire ballot.”

Doughery is running in the Democratic primary against Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who formerly practiced law. They, along with Republican candidate Michael Allen, the district attorney currently serving both El Paso and Teller counties, are the only candidates with elected office experience.

“I’m the only candidate who has overseen and led a large law office,” Dougherty told The Center Square. “I have respect for my colleagues and friends in the race, but none of them have that experience, and it’s really important because the Attorney General’s Office has 724 public servants working there under Phil Weiser.”

Dougherty added that he helped oversee the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York with 1,300 staff members and is the only candidate to have worked in the Attorney General’s Office.

Allen expects Griswold and he will win their parties’ primaries. He drew what he sees as the difference between them during a Center Square interview.

“Nobody wants to get on the plane and hear that the pilot that’s going to fly them across the ocean has never flown a plane before that very day,” Allen said. “That’s really the choice that’s going to come before voters here in Colorado – the choice between me, an experienced prosecutor who’s been elected to serve a big judicial district, versus a Democrat in my likely opponent Jena Griswold who has zero legal experience.”

Griswold was an attorney before being elected secretary of state.

Democratic candidate David Seligman sees a lack of political experience is an attribute. Seligman is the executive director of Towards Justice, a nonprofit law firm that advocates for workers.

“We need new voices, we need new leaders, and we need a bold, imaginative and visionary future for Colorado,” Selgiman told The Center Square.

He added later, “That I have never run for office before and the fact that I’ve done this work on the outside, fighting for people, that’s an asset.”

Griswold and Democratic candidate Hetal Doshi did not respond to The Center Square’s request for interviews. In her campaign, Griswold highlighted her statewide experience as secretary of State.

Doshi, a former deputy assistant attorney general in Colorado, has highlighted her experience in law enforcement at the federal level and work on major cases over the years.

The four Democratic candidates have largely agreed to continue Weiser’s checks on the federal government’s power and to file lawsuits against the Trump administration. As of June 10, the attorney general had filed 66 lawsuits against the Trump administration.

The environment has become a central point to the candidates’ campaigns. Attention on the issue comes as Colorado is in the middle of a rare statewide drought after an unusually light winter snowpack. At the same time, the state remains in deadlocked negotiations with the other Colorado River states to decide how to best reduce usage from the critical Western water source.

Speaking to The Center Square, Dougherty said one of his top priorities for the environment would be to protect the state’s water by finding a solution for the Colorado River Compact with the other Colorado River states. He added that the Attorney General’s office should push back on the federal government’s recently loosened environmental protection regulations, such as for water pollutants.

Seligman said he would focus on corporations in Colorado that have damaged the state’s environment. “We’ve got corporate polluters out here that are polluting our air, making us sick, and getting away with it. And it just does not need to be that way.”

The economy has also taken center stage among the Democratic candidates. Griswold’s campaign website said she would focus on taking corporations to court over economic issues, such as anti-competitive mergers and illegal housing practices.

“We’re getting crushed in Colorado by an economy that is rigged in favor of the most wealthy and the most powerful,” said Seligman. “We live in one of the wealthiest states and the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We’ve got almost a million Coloradans drowning in medical debt …

“We’ve now got a trillionaire that is building out AI systems to spy on us in order to jack up our prices and drive down our wages,” Seligman said, referring to the world’s first and only trillionaire, SpaceX founder and Tesla cofounder Elon Musk. “We can hold them accountable.”

Doshi’s campaign has argued for a similar mend to economic issues, highlighting her experience preventing major mergers and illegal wages as a federal prosecutor.

“It’s about the scams and frauds that we see far too many of, and at a time where people are having trouble putting food on the table and paying rent, the last thing in the world we should allow to happen is people being ripped off,” said Dougherty.

One of the Republican candidates, either Allen or lawyer David Wilson, will look to be the first Republican back in the state Attorney General’s Office since Weiser took over in 2018..

“The reality is that the one-party dominant rule has run its course, and people are ready for change,” Allen said, referring to Democrats controlling the General Assembly (the state’s legislature) and the governor’s and attorney general’s offices.

Allen is critical of Democrats’ performance.

“Colorado has routinely been more expensive than our neighboring states, but it has not been as unaffordable as it is today,” said Allen

Allen is running in the primary against Wilson, who represented the convicted voter fraudster Tina Peters in a recount lawsuit, which was thrown out by the judge.

Allen has focused his campaign on crime’s impact on affordability in Colorado.

“If we can drive down property crimes in the state, it would drive down the cost of insurance in the state as well,” said Allen. “That’s what I mean when I talk about the direct connection between high crime and high cost of living. If you continue to just sit by and let criminals act with impunity, that has a negative impact on our cost of living in this state.”

He has said the office has been wrongfully used for political lawsuits, highlighting by contrast his efforts as a district attorney to bring down auto insurance rates by increasing vehicle theft prosecutions.

Wilson did not respond to a request for comment by The Center Square, but has prioritized social issues such as “No Sharia law,” saying on his campaign website, “If you come to America, it is to assimilate and become an American.” He also advocates for the end of pornography in schools and an end to election fraud.

The four Democratic candidates have all outraised the two Republican candidates by a wide margin.

Griswold led the pack with over $1.9 million in contributions, followed by Doshi with over $1 million, Dougherty with over $925,000 and Seligman at more than $919,000.

With nearly $200,000 in total campaign contributions, Allen dwarfed Wilson’s funds which came just shy of $7,000.

Reports by the Secretary of State’s Office did not make it immediately clear who gave the most money to the various campaigns.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 30, Election Day. For more information, visit the Secretary of State’s website, coloradosos.gov/pubs/elections. Early election results will be published that evening at www.thecentersquare.com/colorado.