June 12, 2013 02:13 PM UTC

Cynthia Coffman Enters AG Race, but Where's Waller?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Republican Cynthia Coffman has formally entered the race for Attorney General, joining Democrat Don Quick as only the second official candidate for 2014. From The Denver Post:

In her announcement, Coffman said she would campaign on protecting water rights; fighting the “federal government oversteps” on states rights protected by the 10th Amendment; and maintainin “the integrity of our criminal justice system” that she says “has been diminished by a flawed corrections system and unenforced death penalty.”

Cynthia Coffman has spent the last eight years working under current Attorney General John Suthers, who is term-limited in 2014. If she is on the ballot for the General Election, she will join husband Mike Coffman, the incumbent congressman from CD-6, in a rare husband-wife ballot combination.

Coffman's formal entry into the AG race is not unexpected, but it raises interesting questions about who (if anyone) might join her among fellow Republicans. By announcing her candidacy now, Coffman will have to file a brief fundraising report for the final weeks of June; this is one of the main reasons candidates rarely announce their intentions before the end of a fundraising period, because it's better to report on a full three months of raising money.

Perhaps Coffman announced early in order to get ahead of other potential candidates. Will 2010 Senate candidate and current Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck still entertain thoughts of entering the race? And what of House Minority Leader Mark Waller?

Back in April, Waller was being discussed as the potential Republican frontrunner for Attorney General. Perhaps the Democrats' unprecedented success in the 2013 legislative session put a serious dent in Waller's plans, but whatever the reason, he has gone from being near the top of the list to essentially an afterthought at this point.