April 10, 2010 09:55 PM UTC

Garnett Attorney General Bid Fires Up Democrats

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• by: Colorado Pols

A meaty look at the upcoming fight between Attorney General candidate Stan Garnett and incumbent John Suthers in this week’s Colorado Statesman, definitely worth a bump:

State Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak called Garnett the best attorney general candidate fielded by the Democrats since Ken Salazar.

“He’s worked tirelessly to support consumers and to make sure that sexual crimes have been prosecuted,” Waak said. “I think he understands the importance of Colorado natural resources and protecting (them) at a time when Suthers actually wanted to do away with the environmental division of the Attorney General’s office.”

Suthers welcomed Garnett as a worthy adversary. He regularly works with Garnett as the ad hoc member on the DA’s Council.

“I think Stan’s a good lawyer,” Suthers said. “When I read some of the things that he says are issues, a couple of them seem to me to stem from just not understanding the office.”

Garnett said Suthers’ decision to have Colorado join a multistate lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform bill, specifically the individual mandate to purchase health insurance, is partly why he decided to run.

“The wandering into factional issues and using the Attorney General’s office and tax payer’s money on behalf of particular political factions would not be tolerated if I’m attorney general,” he said.

Suthers disputes the notion that joining the lawsuit was a political maneuver…

Waak said Colorado Democrats pushed to find a challenger to Suthers after he joined the health care suit.

“Once he signed onto that lawsuit, I was getting hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of emails, and even phone calls, from people who said, ‘find us a candidate,’ or, ‘is there a candidate out there?'” she said. “It’s not just Democrats – there are Democrats, Republicans, Unaffiliateds who want health care and think it’s inappropriate for Suthers to be supporting that lawsuit.”

Garnett said Suthers is basing the lawsuit on a dubious constitutional argument.

He used former Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton as an example of when it’s appropriate for the state to enter a lawsuit in order to benefit citizens as a whole. Norton, a Republican, was one of 46 Attorney Generals to sign on to a lawsuit and win a large settlement to cover health care costs from four major tobacco companies in the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

We think, as we’ve said, that Suthers bought this race entirely on his own by joining that silly anti-health reform lawsuit, just the latest in a string of wedgy partisan crusades Suthers has committed his office to during his tenure. And he’s also not a strong candidate–in 2006, as an appointed incumbent, Suthers barely fought off a very weak Democratic challenger.

We’ve heard a number of descriptions of Garnett since he announced his candidacy this week, but “weak” isn’t one of them. It’s worth acknowledging Garnett’s entry into this race as a pretty remarkable turn of events, from an unopposed cakewalk to the most competitive race John Suthers has ever faced; and to keep his office, Suthers will need to summon up political skill he has either never seen the need to demonstrate, or doesn’t possess.