Editor’s note: This represents the opinion of The Denver Post editorial board, which is separate from the paper’s news operation. Newspaper endorsements in elections have a long history of helping readers vet candidates in a thoughtful and transparent way.
The Denver Post Editorial Board met with all four Democrats running for Colorado Attorney General in the June primary and quickly narrowed the field down to the two strongest candidates – Hetal Doshi and Michael Dougherty.
David Seligman, an employment law specialist who heads the non-profit Towards Justice, has a fierce record of holding corporations accountable, and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold is the only candidate to have actually run a state-wide agency. But Doshi and Dougherty have checked far more experience boxes during their legal careers and were inspiring candidates, saying and doing all the right things.
Doshi has a brilliant legal mind, and her work for both the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado and at the U.S. Department of Justice shows evidence of competence and hard work.
Ultimately, the board was swayed by the impact of Dougherty’s public work in Colorado. We can imagine Dougherty leading the state’s largest law firm because we have seen him handle three unbelievable tragedies in Boulder County and lead the community through to the other side of the horror. We see Dougherty as a candidate who will be out in the community for four years working on the legal issues — water, housing, employment, federal overreach, corporate conglomeration — that affect us all, rather than sitting behind a desk waiting for lawbreakers to come to him.
Dougherty was appointed by Gov. John Hickenlooper to be district attorney in the 20th Judicial District in 2018, and in 2021, a disturbed man killed 10 people at the Boulder King Soopers. For three and a half years, Dougherty deftly handled the case, guiding the public through a frustrating competency system and finally a trial that ended with life in prison without the possibility of parole.
That same year, the Marshall Fire killed two people, destroyed 1,000 homes and caused almost a $1 billion worth of damage. Dougherty led the criminal investigation that found two sources for the fire – an old fire that had been insufficiently smothered and Xcel power lines. Dougherty declined to file negligence charges in the case, but his findings led to civil settlements with Xcel Energy.
Almost exactly a year ago, Boulder suffered again at the hands of evil. Mohamed Soliman attacked Jewish protesters, setting 13 people on fire and killing an 82-year-old woman who had marched down Pearl Street for the release of Israeli hostages. Dougherty was there for the victims and the Jewish community, and after a guilty plea got a life sentence for Soliman.
The community in Boulder County has been in good hands through strife and trauma. Now we hope voters will trust Dougherty with the state attorney general’s office.
“We face a lawless Trump administration where the role of the attorney general has never been more important. And the next attorney general is going to inherit an incredibly critical responsibility in helping lead Colorado and protect Colorado against the Trump administration,” Dougherty said. “Having strong bipartisan support at a time where you didn’t hear those words very often to me speaks to the desire people have to have a leader with integrity who has a proven track record of fighting for whatap right and doing justice without fear and without favor.”
Like the other three candidates, Dougherty has gaps in his legal career that he must fill. Dougherty has predominantly spent his time in criminal prosecutions, but he did have a stint with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office in 2010 when he first moved to Colorado. There, he led the criminal justice section for about three years.
We are endorsing Dougherty despite his lack of experience in civil law because we trust that he can adjust his focus to enforcing Colorado’s civil laws and defending against constitutional challenges. He showed this skill when he worked with Attorney General Phil Weiser to get a consumer protection settlement from a large landlord abusing tenants with junk fees.
“Before I launched the campaign, the top priority for me was getting up to speed on water. I’m the only candidate in the race who ever talks about water, and outside the metro area itap the first question I’m asked,” Dougherty said. “I’m really passionate about this.”
And when it comes to environmental law, Dougherty notes that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has failed the communities around Suncor.
“The communities of color around Suncor have been contaminated for years,” he said. “A $2 million fine in a year where Suncor made $2 billion in the quarter. To me, that was where the state should have stepped up and put the interests of the people over the interests of profit.”
As the state’s attorney, Dougherty can enforce some environmental laws in civil and sometimes criminal court.
We believe Dougherty will be an independent candidate who stands up for Coloradans when it matters most, whether itap enforcing antitrust and labor laws or going after financial crimes and fraud or, as he said at the very start of our interview, pushing back against a lawless president intent on hurting Coloradans.
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