Kudos for Attorney General John Suthers

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by: Colorado Pols

According to a press release from the Colorado Attorney General’s office, Republican John Suthers will start his next work week as the second-longest serving Attorney General in Colorado history. Longtime politicos or attorneys (or Pols friend Voyageur) may know the name at the top of the list: Duke Dunbar, who served 22 years as AG (1951-73).

Suthers was appointed Attorney General by then-Governor Bill Owens upon the election of Ken Salazar to the U.S. Senate. He was elected to serve a full term in 2006 and re-elected in 2010.

Political affiliations aside, this is a pretty cool historical footnote for Suthers.

Full press release after the jump.

SUTHERS BECOMING SECOND LONGEST-SERVING ATTORNEY GENERAL IN COLORADO HISTORY

DENVER – On January 5, 2013, John Suthers will begin his ninth year as Colorado’s Attorney General and in the process become the second longest-serving Attorney General in state history. Only Duke Dunbar, who served 22 years from 1951-1973, had a longer tenure as Colorado Attorney General. Suthers was appointed the state’s 37th Attorney General by Governor Bill Owens upon the election of Ken Salazar to the U.S. Senate. Suthers was sworn in on January 4, 2005, and was subsequently confirmed by the State Senate. He won election to the office in 2006 and 2010. He is term limited and will leave office in January of 2015 after 10 years. No other Attorney General has served longer than eight years.

The following statement is to be attributed to Colorado Attorney General John Suthers in reaction to this milestone.

“It’s been my great privilege to serve as Colorado’s Attorney General for the past eight years and play a small part in the history of our great state. The wide range of issues this office has been involved with over this period are matters of great importance to Colorado citizens. Those issues include internet safety, mortgage and foreclosure fraud, the clean-up of hazardous waste sites, drug abuse prevention and protecting Colorado’s water interests. The litigation the office has been involved in includes topics of great Constitutional import.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office is a dynamic public law office that does incredibly interesting and challenging work. The 435 men and women who work in the Department of Law are talented and dedicated public servants, and it is my honor to be associated with them. I am looking forward to meeting the many challenges the office will face in the next two years.”

8 thoughts on “Kudos for Attorney General John Suthers”

DavidThi808 says:

January 4, 2013 at 10:46 am

I don’t always agree with him but I think he’s done a good & fair job.

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1. Phoenix Rising says:
  
  January 4, 2013 at 11:53 am
  
  (E.g. Obamacare lawsuit)
  
  Still, congrats are in order for him sticking to the job and generally doing a good job at it.
  
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  1. Aristotle says:
    
    January 4, 2013 at 12:14 pm
    
    I’d rather there be a Democrat in that office, but given how nuts today’s GOP is, I’ll be relieved that at least some of their elected officials still have some sense of responsibility to all under their jurisdiction, not just the ones who vote for them.
    
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Diogenesdemar says:

January 4, 2013 at 12:52 pm

however, he’s from a different era of partisanship. An era when one could be both rigid in one’s political views and still perform the full duties of that office at the highest levels of competency and fairness. Suthers is also very sparing in his rushing towards rashness in words, as well as deeds.

Suthers is Colorado’s anti-Gessler and anti-Brophy. If we’ve got to have Republicans in this state, I sure wish we had a few more of his stripe, and a whole lot less of the others.

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1. Colorado Pols says:
  
  January 4, 2013 at 1:24 pm
  
  It’s still a pretty neat accomplishment.
  
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  1. BlueCat says:
    
    January 4, 2013 at 6:44 pm
    
    It’s not like he’s being asked to run for anything else.
    
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Voyageur says:

January 4, 2013 at 3:16 pm

The “W” stood for “Wellington” so his full name was Duke Wellington Dunbar.

Denver Post columnist Tom Gavin once attributed Duke Wellington Dunbar’s long tenure in office to his locking up of the anti-Napoleon vote!

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1. Pam Bennett says:
  
  January 5, 2013 at 6:00 am
  
  I forgot a lot about when I first arrived in Colorado. He was one of the last to represent the Colorado that many people think of mountains, dusty, wheat, small (real small) towns, the beginning of the ski industry, cattle industry, and farming.
  
  The big city of Denver was not here yet (oops, can’t take home out of a girl, even at sea level) but the laws and restrictions that were in place were being changed and removed. Colorado was not big growth at the time. It was getting ready to grow.
  
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