February 15, 2009 07:30 PM UTC

GJ Sentinel's Mike Saccone off to A.G. Suthers' office

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• by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Say what you will about the Grand Junction Sentinel, with their wing-nut columnists (i.e. Rick Wagner and Gary Harmon), tilted editorial page (where George Will is the moderate) or wackily funny You Said It!‘ comments from readers upset about roundabouts, communists in the White House, or evil Bill Ritter out to tax and destroy all life on the Western Slope…

But the Sentinel has long led Colorado papers in reporting about it’s turf…with numerous local reporters covering the Western Slope in the way one or two stringers for the ‘state-wide’ papers cannot match.

For a few years now, Mike Saccone has led the way in his reporting on Colorado and national politics, and how they might impact or play on the Western Slope.

But now Mike is heading off to take a government job–as communications lead for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.

The Colorado Statesman reports (linked above):

Another Colorado political reporter is leaving the industry, and this time the evacuee is the go-to source for Western Slope legislative news.

Mike Saccone, political reporter for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and writer of the Sentinel’s well-read “Political Notebook” blog, has accepted a job as communications director for the Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, ending a three-year stint at the Western Slope’s largest daily newspaper.

Saccone replaces Nate Strauch, who recently accepted a position as flak for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

…”The position at the Attorney General’s Office is a great opportunity to me. Plain and simple,” Saccone told The Colorado Statesman. “I look forward to continuing to serve and inform the people of the state of Colorado from my new perch.”

Saccone broke many statewide political stories in 2008, including the revelation that – while working for Denver-based Aspect Energy – Bob Schaffer, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, had lobbied to secure oil production contracts in Iraq. The U.S. State Department had deemed those contracts, “problematic for Iraq and its attempts to establish a national oil policy.”

Saccone’s coverage of the Legislature – and particularly of legislation affecting the Western Slope – put him in the front ranks among Colorado political reporters.

Thanks Mike, from a die-hard political news junkie and Western Slope denizen.  Your reporting will be missed.