John Suthers and Fern O’Brien come from very different professional backgrounds.
Suthers, 55, has spent most of his career as a prosecutor – a two-term district attorney in Colorado Springs, U.S. attorney for Colorado and most recently Colorado attorney general.
O’Brien, 54, spent the first part of her professional life in business – as an account manager for a publishing company, as manager of a modeling and talent agency and as director of marketing and manager for a group of independent filmmakers.
For the past 15 years, she has practiced law, concentrating on business, real estate and securities matters.
Now both are vying to be elected state attorney general.
Suthers, a Republican, cites his wealth of experience as a prosecutor and his two years as executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections as primary reasons why he should be attorney general.
Despite having no experience as a prosecutor, O’Brien, a Democrat, believes she is more qualified.
“I think my overall experience is much broader than John Suthers’,” O’Brien said. “What I have always brought to my clients is a real-world perspective. That’s exactly what I will bring to the attorney general’s office, which John Suthers simply doesn’t have.”
Suthers is focused on what he believes are the urgent tasks at hand. These include preserving water from Colorado’s mountains for Coloradans and not the people of Phoenix and Los Angeles; the cleanup and recovery of damages from toxic-waste sites across the state; and the stamping out of scams, whether they involve mortgage, insurance or securities rip-offs.
“The legislature has give us concurrent jurisdiction (with district attorneys) over things like securities fraud, insurance fraud, Medicaid and Medicare fraud and all environmental crimes,” Suthers said. “I think the reason the legislature did that is a perception that there is a gap between what many of the DA offices can do.”
The urban DA offices have large white-collar units, but the smaller offices have little complex-crime capability, Suthers said.
He has convened a 30-member task force to find new ways to stop mortgage and foreclosure scams. He is also focusing on insurance fraud, noting his office is receiving 750 referrals a year from the insurance commissioner and insurance industry.
As a result, he has dramatically increased the size of the AG’s unit looking into insurance complaints.
“I think we will be able to take care of a bigger chunk of insurance fraud. I think that is a good thing,” Suthers said.
O’Brien says that as attorney general, a top priority would be keeping government out “of our private lives.”
“I believe that law-abiding citizens should have the right to own guns. I believe that women should have the right to choose, and I believe the government should stay out of a family’s often heart-wrenching end-of-life health care decisions.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
John Suthers
Party affiliation: Republican
Age: 55
Career: Two-term district attorney in Colorado Springs; executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections; U.S. attorney for Colorado; Gov. Bill Owens appointed him attorney general in January 2005 after Ken Salazar was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Education: Graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in government and from the University of Colorado School of Law
Family: Wife, Janet; two daughters, Alison and Kate
Fern O’Brien
Party affiliation: Democrat
Age: 54
Career: Partner in the Boulder law firm of Dietze and Davis, specializing in real estate, business and securities law; on board of directors of the Downtown Boulder Business Improvement District and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art; previous president of the boards of the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center and Project Safeguard, which provides legal advocacy for victims of domestic violence
Education: Bachelor of arts degree in humanities from the University of Minnesota and law degree from Rutgers School of Law, where she was an editor of the Rutgers Law Review
Family: Husband, Morgan; son, Ted; daughter, Claire
