DENVER — The race to become Colorado's next Attorney General is filled with six candidates who all want to become the "people's lawyer." Denver7 sat down with each of them to hear their final pitches to voters, with the primary election in Colorado on June 30.
The current AG, Phil Weiser, is running in the gubernatorial Democratic primary.
Four Democrats hope they will take his spot, and two Republicans believe it is time for the state to change the direction of that office.
Unaffiliated voters can choose what primary they vote in, but cannot cast ballots in both.
The primary election in Colorado is June 30. Ballots must be received by 7 p.m. that day.
JENA GRISWOLD
The first name listed in the race for AG on the Democratic primary ballot is Jena Griswold, who is currently the Colorado Secretary of State.
Griswold moved to Colorado when she was in elementary school and went on to attend law school in Philadelphia. She practiced law for a few years before working for U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper in Washington, D.C.
Now, Griswold has held the title of SOS in Colorado for just over seven years.
"I've played a significant role on several high-profile democracy issues, like making sure Tina Peters was addressed and held accountable, or in 2020 working so that Postmaster General was restrained and stopped from sending bad information out to Colorado voters," Griswold said. "I've managed that office during one of the most difficult times — during the greatest attack on our democracy in recent history. I'm also the candidate with the experience that is mattering most to voters: Standing up to Trump.”
Griswold said that her experience as the SOS has prepared her for the role of AG.
"In my current job as Secretary of State, there's a lot that I do that never makes the television, right? Because it's not the hot topics. The hot topics are democracy, standing up to Trump, standing up to MAGA. The Attorney General is similar to an extent in that there's a lot that the Attorney General's office is doing on any given day that Coloradans may not be paying super close attention to, but at the end of the day, what the Attorney General is, is the lead lawyer for the state," Griswold said. "You're a manager of 700 lawyers and support staff, advising the statewide executive officials, advising every agency, and then making some of those big strategic decisions on how to protect our state.”
State
Colorado voting system password leak investigation findings released
If Griswold is picked as the Democratic candidate that advances to the Nov. general election ballot, she vowed to continue her fight against the Trump administration that has already been seen in her work as SOS. She also mentioned a number of other priorities, which include protecting reproductive rights, holding federal immigration enforcement accountable, working with the state legislature on gun violence prevention measures, and standing up to corporate organizations responsible for pollution.
Recently, Griswold has been criticized for missing certain campaign events by her fellow candidates. For her part, Griswold said she has attended 12 forums and a debate, along with hosting a dozen town halls across the state.
"I would say the attack is misguided, and I think a show of desperation from the other campaigns," Griswold said. "I'm overseeing the election that is ongoing right now. As Secretary of State, we're preparing for federal interference and all the things that Coloradans may be worrying about... I'm also a mom. I have a 22-month-old little toddler, and I honestly think the experience of having a toddler at home is important."
At the end of all of these interviews, Denver7 asked the candidates for a fun fact about themselves.
“After college I was actually awarded a fellowship, it's called the Watson Fellowship, and I spent a year in different countries around the world studying cultural global organization through the dance of salsa," Griswold said. “As Secretary of State, I do not go salsa dancing often, but I love salsa dancing. I actually met my husband at a joint birthday party, salsa dancing party."
DAVID SELIGMAN
Next on the Democratic primary ballot in the race for AG is David Seligman, the executive director of a legal nonprofit called Towards Justice.
"Towards Justice is a national legal organization that fights for working people in court, here in Colorado and across the country, taking on corporate abuse and corruption," said Seligman.
Born in Denver, Seligman said he now lives just a few miles from where he was raised.
“Had the good fortune of taking out loans, you know, I went to Harvard Law School. I clerked for federal judges, but I saw really early on a legal system that was fundamentally tilted in favor of those with wealth and power and against ordinary people, and I saw a legal profession that too often sells out working people, frankly the same way that I see my party, the Democratic Party, too often selling out working people," Seligman said. "I moved back home to Colorado, have dedicated every single day of my legal career to standing up in court for working families, using the law in bold ways, in new ways, on behalf of working people, consumers, immigrants, and others taking on the forces of corruption and corporate abuse.”
Denver7 asked Seligman what in his professional experience has prepared him for the job of AG.
"I've helped recover nearly $100 million stolen from working people. Forced the biggest corporations in the world to follow the law," Seligman said. "We sued the Trump administration and won. Sued the Polis administration and won. We stopped the governor from turning over Coloradans' personal information to ICE, using the law as a force of good in the world.”
Seligman said his experience with recruiting and retaining lawyers would be beneficial in the AG's office.
"The next Attorney General is running an office of more than 700 people, and I have helped to turn my legal organization Towards Justice into a national powerhouse in the fight for economic justice and for civil rights. That's a unique kind of leadership experience in this race, the kind of entrepreneurial leadership experience, the kind of scrappy leadership experience that I think we need right now," said Seligman. “The Attorney General is a lawyer for the people of Colorado, so all the ways in which you're getting screwed over and ripped off and undermined — the Attorney General is there to fight for you, right?”
When discussing what priorities Seligman would focus on as AG, he said there is not enough being done to hold the wealthy and powerful accountable.
“There's a ton to do. And look, the house is on fire now. We need to be doing all the things seriously to take on the forces of corruption and corporate abuse that are dismantling this country, that are making life harder," said Seligman. "It means prosecuting ICE officers under Colorado law if they trample our rights. We can't be afraid to do that, but it's not just that. We also need to be holding accountable and protecting all the folks that are being taken into immigration detention right now. We know that they are living in horrific conditions, being denied safe food, being denied health care in violation of state law. If I'm Attorney General, I'm doing everything I can, subpoena in my hand, to get into GEO, to get into our immigration detention facilities, to make sure that those facilities are following the law.”
Seligman said the affordability issues in the state are connected to accountability issues as well.
"The affordability crisis isn't just about money we're spending, it's also about stagnating wages in one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest country in the history of the world," said Seligman. "We have a pervasive corporate union busting and wage theft and exploitation of market power to undermine working people.”
In addition, Seligman said climate change would be a priority if he were AG.
“We just cannot lose track of the existential threat of climate change. I am terrified for my daughter's future right now, and we've got corporate polluters here in Colorado that have been polluting our air and water for decades and getting away with it, and it doesn't need to be that way," said Seligman. "When I'm Attorney General, we're going to create an affirmative environmental justice and protection unit to go on offense to make polluters pay from Day 1. In particular, to protect those communities that are most harmed by the corporate pollution that is making thousands and thousands of people in Colorado sick right now.”
Something Seligman is not often talking about on the campaign trail is his love of the Colorado Rockies.
"I'm a suffering Rockies fan, and my actual dream job, you know, for many, many years, right — second to being the lawyer for the people of Colorado — is to be the public address announcer at Coors Field," Seligman said with a smile.
MICHAEL DOUGHERTY
Another Democratic contender for Colorado's next AG is Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.
"I'm the proud grandson of four Irish immigrants who came over on the boat with nothing but the shirts on their backs. They settled in Brooklyn, New York, and that's where I was born," Dougherty said. "I'm a leader and a prosecutor who's been fighting for justice my entire career, and I've always been honored to be in public service.”
According to Dougherty, he came from a family filled with railroad workers, firefighters, police officers, and teachers.
"I was very geared towards public service from the beginning, and I went to community college coming out of high school, because we didn't have much money. And I loaded trucks at UPS on the night shift," Dougherty said. “After graduating from community college and going on to complete my four-year degree, I went on to law school.”
After law school, Dougherty served as a prosecutor within the Manhattan District Attorney's office for more than a decade. He was in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
"A day that's seared in our memories — for all of us," Dougherty said. “A couple days later, I got a case that will always stay with me. It was a guy who had falsely claimed to have found survivors in the rubble of the World Trade Center during the rescue operation, and I was a fairly young prosecutor, and I was entrusted with the responsibility of fighting for justice in that case. His actions, and claiming that he found survivors — he did that, by the way, because he was trying to cover his tracks. He was trying to get down into the shopping mall below the World Trade Center to steal stuff at a time of crisis, and it was the shopping mall that I used to go to for my last-minute shopping every Christmas. When he got caught, he claimed to have found survivors as a cover story. The firefighters he placed at risk, they were already traumatized... Took that case to trial, and the tenant was found guilty of endangering their lives.”
Since working in Boulder, Dougherty has overseen a number of high-profile cases within his judicial district, including the case involving the Marshall Fire, the Boulder King Soopers mass shooting, and the Pearl Street firebombing terror attack.
"I'm not term-limited as District Attorney. I could serve six more years, and I have a job that I love, and I live 10 minutes from the courthouse, but I'm compelled to step up and run for Attorney General right now, because this moment calls for each one of us to do everything we can to protect Colorado and build a better future," Dougherty said. "I see this as the greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime, and we have a lawless Trump administration where the Attorneys General are on the front lines of defending the rule of law and preserving the values and ideals of Colorado.”
Dougherty explained what his priorities would be for the AG's office, if he were elected to the position.
“First would be water and environment, and I say that because the Colorado River Compact is ending this year, and as you know, water is the precious lifeblood of Colorado," Dougherty said. "Our environment, particularly with the Trump administration rolling back the Environmental Protection Agency, it's key that I, as the next Attorney General, step up and do even more. I've overseen the Environmental Crimes Unit in the AG's office, I know what that unit's about, and I know the impact it can have on the state. I also want to see the state of Colorado do even more.”
Beyond the environmental concerns, Dougherty said he would like to see Colorado ban private prisons and engage in meaningful criminal justice reform that addresses substance use and mental health, in addition to public safety.
“The mission in my office is to do justice, not to rack up convictions like notches in a gunbelt, but to do our very best to serve the community, and we do that by making sure we reach the just outcome in every case, so whether it's a traffic misdemeanor or horrific mass murder case, we're always going to fight for the right outcome in my office," Dougherty said. "We're living through a time of crisis in this country right now, and we're more divided than I've ever seen us. So, the fact that I have strong bipartisan support, to me, speaks to my track record of fighting for justice and doing it with integrity.”
When he is not working at the courthouse, Dougherty is passionate about ultrarunning.
"I've run the Leadville 100, twice. Completed it both times with a lot of help from an amazing crew, which is much like this campaign," said Dougherty. "It's a long journey, but I have an incredible crew around me, and I've done 50 milers all around the state, and I've been an ultrarunner for many, many years.”
HETAL DOSHI
Rounding out the Democratic candidates for Colorado's next AG is Hetal Doshi, who has lived in Colorado for the last 14 years.
"Before that, I moved all across the country, largely in the Deep South. I am the proud product of a public education in Alabama, from sixth grade to 12th grade, where I grew up about 90 miles from Selma," Doshi said. "I actually have never planned to run for office, and yet, as I look back on this particular moment, and my expertise and experience — my experience was made for this moment.”
Doshi said she has been a federal prosecutor for more than a decade, and a lawyer for more than 20 years.
"As a federal prosecutor right here in Colorado, I have traveled across the four corners of the state prosecuting corporate misconduct, executives that lied and cheated, environmental crimes, public corruption offenses, investigating hate crimes, things like scams and frauds against vulnerable communities, securities frauds," Doshi said. "The sort of the success that I had in doing that work and approaching it in a really creative and relentless way drew the attention of the Biden-Harris administration, and so at the beginning of that administration they reached out to me and out of a pool of a lot of litigators and lawyers across the country, they said 'We want you to be the litigator and the lawyer that leads our teams into battle in the most consequential history making cases in the modern generation.'"
Her most recognized case, in Doshi's opinion, was the lawsuit against Ticketmaster, which she said speaks to power, corruption, and the ability to achieve the American Dream.
"That case is about art and music and the creative industry, and so it is fundamentally about our ability to, as part of the American Dream, do things with our families in a way that is affordable and accessible, right?" said Doshi. "But that case is much bigger than just music. It is about industries where one company or a small group of companies have a chokehold on every part of the industry, and so whether it's live music or health care or food or agriculture — Americans and Coloradans are seeing that they feel like they have an illusion of choice, but don't really meaningfully have a choice, and so they can't get away from junk fees and other types of things like that, that make those types of opportunities inaccessible.”
According to Doshi, she saw inequities while working within the criminal justice system which has guided her work to this day.
"I saw that our criminal justice system really had no problem holding the poorest in our society to account, often Black and brown communities, but we didn't do a very good job of holding those who had power, privilege, and resources and huge, powerful allies to account," Doshi said. "We have a two-tiered system of justice. And so I thought, I want to use my time, skills, and talents to make sure that we bring tenacity and relentlessness to that fight, to make sure no matter how rich or powerful you are, you have to abide by the same set of rules.”
Doshi said she believes government should exist to serve the people, not the other way around, which is a philosophy she intends to carry into the AG's office.
"I will wake up every day as your next Attorney General with a fight unlike ever before, because this moment demands it," Doshi said. "This is a moment where, let's be plain, we have a president and his family who have made $4 billion off the grift that is occurring in Washington and the White House. $4 billion. And at that exact same time, we are debating and having to pass legislation to make sure that single moms can buy a rotisserie chicken with their SNAP benefits. That's the moment. We are seeing a decline in faith in public institutions, and trust in our government and our public officials, and it is time for government to step up and deliver to actually make people's lives better. That's the moment.”
Doshi's fun fact is inherently connected to her case against Ticketmaster and her love of live music.
"I have a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of a lot of '80s, '90s, and 2000s hip-hop, and I can probably quote a Tupac lyric to match any circumstance or situation," Doshi said. “Relatedly, this surprises people, I am a — because you know, boring lawyer some days — I am also a classically trained dancer, and that is another reason that I've come by my love of music.”
MICHAEL ALLEN
On the Republican side of the race is El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen, who grew up in Colorado.
Allen has prosecuted a handful of cases with national significance, including the Return to Nature case where nearly 200 bodies were discovered rotting inside of a Penrose funeral home and the mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
“We clean up the messes that other people create and deal with the tragedy and hold people accountable," Allen said.
Denver7 asked Allen about his staunch support of the LGBTQ+ community following the mass shooting.
"There's never been a case that I've prosecuted where I'm asking either the defendant or the victim, what is their political alignment? I'm not asking that. I don't care about that," Allen said. "Has somebody been hurt? And if so, then I'll stand up with them and fight for justice for them. And it doesn't matter where they come from. Every person has inherent human dignity, and that's what I fight for as a prosecutor.”
Allen said he has spent more than two decades as a prosecutor, and he believes that experience has prepared him for the role of AG.
"I've led a big office. I've served the people of this state, doesn't matter where they come from, and fought for justice for them, and that's what we need in the Attorney General's office," said Allen.
If voters choose Allen as the Republican who heads to the general election ballot, he promised to always fight for what is right for Coloradans.
"I'm always going to fight for justice for folks, whether they've been wronged in some consumer fraud scheme, or they've been victimized by crime, or the federal government, or some other act, or other states are hurting the interests of the people of this state. I'm going to fight for them," Allen said. "We need to do a better job for people; they count on the Attorney General's office to do that work, and luckily, I've done it.”
Under current Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is one of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, the office has sued the Trump administration more than 60 times.
"There is a place for the Attorney General's office to stand up and defend the rights of the state against the federal government. The difference between myself and current Attorney General Weiser is that I'm not going to do it because a particular person is sitting in the Oval Office," Allen said. “We need to be very conscious about how we're using our resources, make sure that we're fighting actually to help the people of this state, and not using lawsuits against the federal government or a particular administration just to advance a political career, which is what I think a lot of these lawsuits have actually done.”
Something voters may not know about Allen is that he spent eight years in the Navy, where he met his wife, Heidi.
"She's a Colorado native as well. I was in the Persian Gulf when our oldest son was born, and that was a big deciding factor for us to come back to Colorado, actually to end my Navy career and come back to Colorado," Allen said.
DAVID WILLSON
Running against Allen in the Republican race for AG is David Willson. Willson told Denver7 he spent 20 years as an army attorney, or Judge Advocate General (JAG), moving roughly every two years and having to quickly learn various types of law.
Willson continued to explain the rest of his legal career to Denver7.
"I was a special assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting civilians committing crimes on installations. I did international operational law, cybersecurity law, intelligence law, space control. Since then, I filed a number of lawsuits helping people fighting COVID mandates, so unlawful termination of employment, religious exemptions, things like that," said Willson. “For the last, almost 10 years, I've been court-appointed, representing parents having their kids taken away by DHS. At one point, having over 100 cases, so I have a very wide experience of legal issues that I've dealt with over almost 36 years of practicing law.”
Willson also addressed the number of lawsuits filed by the current Colorado's AG against the Trump administration.
"I'm thinking, that's not management, that's not dealing with resources properly, that's just a knee-jerk reaction," said Willson. "Personally, I voted for Trump. I support what he's doing. Yeah, as a typical New Yorker, he can say things that people may not like, but hey, that's a typical New Yorker. And so, I would probably get rid of most of those lawsuits.”
According to Willson, he is running for AG because he is looking to change the current system.
"I am tired of politicians who love you when they want to get elected, and then they disappear, and you never hear from them again, unless it's another election or something significant pops up, and suddenly they find themselves in front of a camera," said Willson. "I will have a town hall every single month online and in various locations around the state, so I can continue to talk to all the amazing people I've been talking to, and hear what their concerns are, and relay back to them what I'm doing to try and address those concerns."
A fun fact about Willson is that he has done Wing Chun Kung Fu for 40 years.
"I started that in New York, because it can be somewhat of a tough place, and you either know how to fight or you run, and I wasn't going to run. And I don't run from from fights," said Willson, who continued to list off one more fun fact. “I can't sing or play an instrument, but I really wanted to learn how to play the banjo, so I have a banjo that, when I find time, which is rare, I try and practice, not for anybody to ever hear."
