They are sometimes referred to as “minor” statewide offices. But the posts of attorney general, secretary of state and state treasurer are major opportunities to ambitious politicians looking to test their skills on a statewide stage before going for a top job like governor or U.S. senator.
Yet, as 2005 draws to a close, the lineups for these key statewide contests are largely unsettled, particularly on the Democratic side.
The clock has just about run out on these races. Party caucuses are set for March 21, and a candidate for statewide office has to be circulating now and attending the rash of Lincoln Day and Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners early next year if he or she is to become familiar to the party cadre that will dominate the county assemblies in April and the subsequent state nominating conventions.
The most powerful of the three jobs is clearly that of attorney general. Incumbent Republican John Suthers was appointed to replace Democrat Ken Salazar after the latter was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. Suthers kept most Salazar appointments at their jobs and has generally won bipartisan praise. State Sen. Dan Grossman, D-Denver, once toyed with running for the post but backed off. As of now, it looks as though Suthers will face fairly nominal Democratic opposition next fall.
If Suthers does win a four-year term in 2006, he can seek another one in 2010. That’s because he was sworn in to replace Salazar Feb. 7, 2005. Because he served less than half of Salazar’s term, he can seek election to two four-year terms in his own right – according to a ruling on term limits made earlier this fall by none other than John Suthers.
State treasurer looks like a more competitive contest. The current treasurer, Republican Mark Hillman, left his state Senate seat after Gov. Bill Owens named him to replace Mike Coffman. Coffman, a Marine reservist, is off in Iraq and helped that country’s nascent democracy stage its recent elections. There is a kind of gentleman’s agreement between Owens, Coffman and Hillman that when Coffman returns in April, Hillman will resign and Owens will reappoint Coffman as treasurer. But Coffman is term-limited and Hillman is thus the likely Republican candidate for treasurer in 2006.
Hillman already faces two serious Democratic rivals. One is retired Air Force Col. John Turner of Highlands Ranch, a well-seasoned fiscal expert. Curiously enough, Turner’s only previous political outing was as an unsuccessful Republican congressional candidate in 1980 for Missouri’s 9th Congressional District.
Also looking at the treasurer’s job is Cary Kennedy, co-author along with Chris Romer of the 2000 Amendment 23 school-finance plan. She would probably be the favorite of Democratic activists at their convention. A Kennedy-Hillman race next fall would be interesting because Hillman has been a frequent critic of Amendment 23.
The secretary of state race could spawn a Republican primary. The current incumbent, Gigi Dennis, was appointed to the post by Owens after Donetta Davidson took a better-paying job in the Bush administration. Dennis has made it clear she will seek the job next fall. Coffman also plans to run for secretary of state when he returns from Iraq. At least some Republicans have suggested the party could avoid a primary for that post by nominating Coffman for lieutenant governor. Under current Colorado law, the candidate for light governor is chosen by the gubernatorial candidate, and Coffman would obviously add luster to a ticket led by either U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez or his rival, Marc Holtzman. Whether Coffman would want to hitch his wagon to either Beauprez’s or Holtzman’s gubernatorial star is less certain.
So far, no serious Democratic candidate has surfaced for secretary of state, though Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, is sometimes mentioned. If Gordon did seek the job he, like Coffman, might run into a reverse glass ceiling. No man has been elected secretary of state in Colorado since Byron A. Anderson in 1970. Anderson died in office and Republican Gov. John Vanderhoof appointed Mary Estill Buchanan to the job in 1974. It’s been a distaff monopoly ever since.
Bob Ewegen (bewegen@denverpost.com) is deputy editorial page editor of The Denver Post. He has covered state and local government since 1963.
