March 25, 2010 07:24 PM UTC

Did Suthers Sue His Way Into a Tough Re-Election?

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• by: Colorado Pols

By most account, the lawsuits being filed by Attorney Generals around the county (most of them Republicans) challenging health care reform are not likely to succeed. When Colorado Attorney General John Suthers joined the political gamesmanship by signing on to the lawsuit, he did so as a candidate who wasn’t facing a serious re-election challenge in November, so in theory he had nothing to lose politically by doing what national Republicans asked of him.

But that may be changing.

Incensed at Suthers for using his office to attempt to overturn legislation that was approved by 5 of 7 Colorado Congressional members and both Senators, Democrats are now more actively seeking a potential challenger to Suthers. One of the names that seems to be getting the most traction is that of Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett.

Garnett has not yet indicated that he would run for A.G., but he is reportedly considering the race as recruitment efforts intensify. If he did decide to run, he would give Democrats a serious challenger to Suthers. Garnett is well-known in the legal community as a former powerhouse attorney at Brownstein, Hyatt & Farber, and he would have no trouble raising a lot of money in a very short period of time (and erasing Suthers’ $170k cash on hand advantage in a hurry).

A week ago Suthers looked like he would walk into re-election in 2010, since a strong candidate like Garnett might not have been seriously tempted to take a run at him. But now that Suthers has waded into the health care debate, he has provided Democrats with a significant issue to use against him; combine that with a potentially well-funded challenger, and suddenly things don’t look so rosy for re-election anymore.