We have a primary election coming up in Colorado on June 30. Mark it on your calendar.
Vote by mail, if you like, while you still can, without masked agents looking over your shoulder.
Primaries are important because they enable us to shape the fights coming in November during the general election.
Because I’m a Democrat, I’m going to write here about the Dem contenders, and it’s a strong field. I invite Republican writers out there to weigh in about their side of the ring. [Please reach out to [email protected] if you’d like to submit an opinion piece on Republican candidates or any other topic. – ed.]
I’ve already commented a bit about the gubernatorial race, suggesting aggressive Attorney General Phil Weiser would be a sharper contender for the Democratic nomination for governor than the milquetoast Sen. Michael Bennet, who has launched ugly attacks on Weiser. Those attacks, probably meant to dash away his often dull demeanor, just make Bennet look unhinged.
Today, I’d like to focus on a race that hasn’t gotten as much attention: the one for attorney general. It’s one that could be vitally important to Colorado’s future, replacing the term-limited Weiser.
When we look at the primaries, we usually ask the question: “Which candidate is the most electable?” In other words, who’s most likely to win?
It sounds like a reasonable question, as building a blue wave in November is essential to resurrect some form of democracy in our country. But too often, that question of electability appeals to the worst in our nature, asking us to be cautious when we absolutely must be bold. We decide to go for the old white guy because, heck, there are a lot of sexist racists out there, and we need their vote, too, don’t we?
No, we don’t.
Look at New York City and its new mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
In that spirit, I ask you to look carefully at AG candidate Hetal Doshi. If anything, Doshi is overqualified for the job. She was working as a federal prosecutor in Colorado when President Biden tapped her to be a top antitrust litigator for the Department of Justice, back in the days when we had a real DOJ. She took on major corporations, like Google and Ticketmaster, and won.
For this race, she’ll be up against three worthy contenders: a gritty attorney who specialized in workers’ rights, a former secretary of state and a district attorney for Boulder.
I recently spent some time with Doshi on the phone. She talked about her vision for the job.
She told me her top priority would be “defending Colorado and protecting the rule of law – anything that touches on our constitutional rights, our right to vote, our right to make decisions about our bodies.”
Her critics argue that much of her experience is in Washington, not Colorado. But when you look at the major fights ahead, particularly stopping Trump from stationing ICE at polling stations and punishing our state for voting blue, experience at the federal level will be critical.
She’s tough. She’s smart. And having worked in the DOJ before it became Trump’s attack-dog cabal motivates her to fight back.
“The Department of Justice is the only cabinet named after a value,” Doshi said. “You learn that as a young prosecutor. And now watching the DOJ dismantled and a wrecking ball taken to the norms, the rule of law …”
She paused, and in that pause I could sense the kind of fury she’d bring to the job.
Doshi’s personal story, raised in a working-class family from India, also is inspiring. Her family came here for a new life, the American dream, and Doshi helped her parents clean toilets in a roadside motel. She would go on to law school and become the living embodiment of her parents’ dream.
Let me be frank here. I’ll vote for whichever Democratic AG candidate gets the nomination. But I’m rooting for Doshi, in part because I think she would scare the crap out of Trump.
As she says in one of her campaign ads:
“To Donald Trump and the corrupt politicians propping him up: You’ve picked the wrong woman to mess with.”
Doesn’t that make you want to let her at him?
The Epstein Files is a semi-regular Pikes Peak Bulletin column featuring Warren Epstein’s take on politics, food, the arts and whatever else is on his mind. There will always be one mention of President Donald Trump as a confirmation that yes, Trump is in The Epstein Files.
The Epstein Files present the views of the author only and not any official stance of the Bulletin.
