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March 25, 2010 07:24 PM UTC

Did Suthers Sue His Way Into a Tough Re-Election?

  • 23 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

By most account, the lawsuits being filed by Attorney Generals around the county (most of them Republicans) challenging health care reform are not likely to succeed. When Colorado Attorney General John Suthers joined the political gamesmanship by signing on to the lawsuit, he did so as a candidate who wasn’t facing a serious re-election challenge in November, so in theory he had nothing to lose politically by doing what national Republicans asked of him.

But that may be changing.

Incensed at Suthers for using his office to attempt to overturn legislation that was approved by 5 of 7 Colorado Congressional members and both Senators, Democrats are now more actively seeking a potential challenger to Suthers. One of the names that seems to be getting the most traction is that of Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett.

Garnett has not yet indicated that he would run for A.G., but he is reportedly considering the race as recruitment efforts intensify. If he did decide to run, he would give Democrats a serious challenger to Suthers. Garnett is well-known in the legal community as a former powerhouse attorney at Brownstein, Hyatt & Farber, and he would have no trouble raising a lot of money in a very short period of time (and erasing Suthers’ $170k cash on hand advantage in a hurry).

A week ago Suthers looked like he would walk into re-election in 2010, since a strong candidate like Garnett might not have been seriously tempted to take a run at him. But now that Suthers has waded into the health care debate, he has provided Democrats with a significant issue to use against him; combine that with a potentially well-funded challenger, and suddenly things don’t look so rosy for re-election anymore.

Comments

23 thoughts on “Did Suthers Sue His Way Into a Tough Re-Election?

  1. I have been concerned for a long time, that the Dems had not fielded a serious candidate for AG.  It is outrageous that a state-wide consitutional office does not have a Dem candidate.

    It is doubly so now.

  2. Suthers’ political pageantry surrounding recent Colorado Supreme Court decisions too.

    Suthers has done a few good things related to consumer advocacy, but these political stunts easily outweigh whatever good he may have done in his time in office.

    I still think he wins, but hopefully now it won’t be unopposed.

  3. I’d be seriously disappointed if someone didn’t challenge Suthers, and wasting taxpayer dollars tilting at imagined Constitutional windmills is something this state doesn’t need right now.  It’s good campaign fodder, as are a few other of Suthers’ political adventures.

  4. I’m the third person to use that as a subject heading, but screw it, he needs the encouragement.

    Lending my state’s name to this travesty is unacceptable, and it’s equally unacceptable that Suthers is waltzing to a second term unchallenged. Please, make him pay for it with an election loss.

    1. Way to go Suthers.  You had no opposition, you could have just laid low until the election, but what did you do?  You whored your office out to R party leadership.

      Nice.

      Go Stan. 🙂

    1. Medicare is unconstitutional.  If that is the argument they want to make go for it.  GOP election drives will consists of a folding table outside of new center right party after  the GOP has completely disintegrated.

  5. Michigan AG Mike Cox is one of those signing on to the health care challenge.  But it appears Governor Jennifer Granholm has figured out a way to neutralize him: she’s ordered him, under the powers granted to the Governor of Michigan, to intervene in the case on behalf of the State against the suit!

    That probably puts him in a slight conflict-of-interest position…  It will be interesting to see how he deals with it; he’s running for governor, so he’d better step carefully.

    1. Attorney General Thurbert Baker refused to sign on on to suing over the HCR bill and now Republican Governor Sonny Perdue is attempting to go over his head and appoint a “special” attorney general.

      Baker’s reasoning for not joining the suit is pretty straightforward:

      “I do not believe that Georgia has a viable legal claim against the United States….I cannot justify a decision to initiate expensive and time-consuming litigation that I believe has no legal merit. In short, this litigation is likely to fail and will consume significant amounts of taxpayers’ hard-earned money in the process,

      Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Republican state legislature is gearing up to impeach AG Baker and has gathered 30 signatures for the resolution.  

        1. You have a candidate from the sane side of the Republican party running against a wing-nut. It will give them a chance to fight out where their state GOP should go. That could be a really good thing.

          I was hoping we would get the same thing here with Penry vs McInnis. No such luck unless Maes can get the bucks to be a credible threat.

  6. Both in cases where we were on opposite sides of an issue (where I think you learn more about a person) as well as times we agreed. I think he would make a damn good Attorney General.

    Equally important, I can’t ever see him trying to make policy from that position. He would focus on enforcing the law. And where he wanted change, he would go to the legislature.

    If Stan runs he has my vote and my support.

  7. wasting money and time on something like this.

    Plus I agree with Middle of the road, he needs to be challenged. No opponent makes for a boring election.

    Go Garnett!

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