Colorado Attorney General Candidates Debate Office Strategy

Jena Griswold isn’t just running for Attorney General; she’s running to prove that the office can be a weapon, not just a courtroom.

The current Attorney General, Phil Weiser, has already filed at least 65 lawsuits against the Trump administration. That’s a lot of legal paper. It’s also a lot of political capital. Griswold, the 41-year-old Secretary of State, wants to know if her neighbors think that strategy holds up when the budget gets tight.

“The question is whether” the office can maintain that aggressive posture without burning out its resources, Griswold says. She’s positioning herself as the continuity candidate. She’s been in the state government machine since 2018, working out of Louisville. She knows how the gears turn because she helped grease them when she was John Hickenlooper’s liaison in Washington and later fought for voting rights in the Obama campaign.

But she’s not the only one with a plan.

Michael Dougherty, the 54-year-old Boulder County District Attorney, sees the job differently. He’s spent his career in the trenches of criminal prosecution, from Manhattan to the First Judicial District of Colorado. For Dougherty, the Attorney General’s office isn’t just about big federal lawsuits; it’s about local enforcement.

“I’m not interested in being a one-trick pony,” Dougherty says. He’s talking about the balance between the high-profile political battles in D.C. and the mundane, critical work of prosecuting crimes that affect Delta County, Glenwood Springs, and the rest of the Western Slope. He wants to ensure that the 650+ employees in the office aren’t just chasing headlines. They’re chasing justice.

Then there’s David Seligman.

Seligman, 43, runs Towards Justice, a nonprofit focused on worker rights. He’s not a career politician or a career prosecutor. He’s a labor lawyer. He’s looking at the AG’s office through the lens of the people who build the houses and drive the trucks in the valley.

Seligman says the growing need for consumer protection in an era of inflation and housing shortages is undeniable. He’s arguing that the AG needs to prioritize the little guy over the big corporations. If you’re a worker in the Grand Junction area trying to get unpaid wages, or a family fighting a developer on zoning, Seligman wants the AG’s office to be on your side.

Hetal Doshi, 47, brings a different kind of experience. She was the head of the antitrust unit in the Biden Justice Department. She’s seen how federal agencies squeeze monopolies. She’s also a former federal prosecutor in Colorado. Doshi is positioning herself as the technocrat who understands both the law and the economics.

“We can use antitrust tools to lower prices for locals,” Doshi says.

The race is set for June 30. Four candidates. One office. Six hundred and fifty employees. And a whole lot of decisions to make about who gets sued and who gets protected.

Griswold is confident. She’s got the name recognition. She’s got the track record. But she’s also got a field of three well-qualified challengers.

“The voters will decide,” Griswold says. “But I think they’re looking for someone who can fight on two fronts: in the courts and in the community.”

It’s a simple promise. But in a state where the Attorney General’s office has become a national battleground, it’s a hard one to keep.