High-profile and at times controversial, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck on Tuesday announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by freshman Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.
Casting Buck as a small-government, free-market candidate, his campaign says his five years of experience in the district attorney’s office and his time in the U.S. attorney’s office set him apart from his to-be-announced Republican opponent, Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier.
“I am a big ‘rule of law’ person. That’s an important part of the fabric of society,” Buck said. “We also need to make sure the federal government recognizes our liberties; one of the most important is the ability to spend our money the way we want to.”
Buck’s office has earned recent headlines with both the conviction of transgender woman Angie Zapata’s killer and a controversial scheme to snag illegal immigrants with false identification through seized tax records.
In the latter case, the Weld County Sheriff’s Office seized 5,000 files of tax records from a preparer sanctioned to help illegal immigrants file taxes.
About 100 people were targeted for stolen IDs, and Buck has asked the state Supreme Court to overrule a district-court opinion that the seizure was inappropriate.
Buck supporter and state Rep. B.J. Nikkel, R-Loveland, touted the range of cases the district attorney’s office takes up.
“It shows that he has terrific political courage to be able to step up to the plate on issues that affect Colorado,” Nikkel said.
It will take more than political courage to beat Bennet. It will also take cash.
Bennet, appointed to the vacant Senate seat in early January, had already raised $1.4 million through the end of March.
Buck could first face Frazier in a GOP primary. Frazier announced this month that he’s raising money for a U.S. Senate bid, though he hasn’t officially announced his candidacy.
