Washington – Former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell said today he has decided against a run for governor of Colorado after strongly considered it.
Campbell, a Republican from Ignacio, said he had talked to people about setting up a campaign.
“He gave it very serious thought,” said Campbell’s spokeswoman, Kate Dando, who moved with him from the Senate to the law firm of Holland & Knight, where Campbell is a “senior policy adviser” in the Indian affairs section of the firm’s lobbying division.
“As time went on he decided he was enjoying his new challenges,” Dando added.
Campbell served 18 years in the House and Senate, starting as a Democrat, but switching parties in 1995. For much of his tenure, he was the only American Indian in Congress and he chaired the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
He announced his retirement in March 2004, citing health reasons, amid a federal criminal investigation of alleged no-bid contracts and kickbacks in his Senate office. Campbell has said he is not a subject of the probe, which is ongoing.
The possibility of a Campbell candidacy had not received much attention in recent months in political circles. U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Arvada, and former University of Denver president Marc Holtzman are actively seeking the GOP nomination.
Much speculation has centered on whether additional candidates, such as Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, will seek the Democratic nomination in addition to former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter.
On the day after announcing his Senate retirement, Campbell told The Denver Post, “I’d really just be trading one set of problems for another” by being elected governor.
“But there was something poetic in a descendant of people who died at the Sand Creek Massacre becoming the governor of the state,” he added, referring to the notorious 1864 slaughter of 163 Indians by Colorado militia troops at a plains campsite.
