The Gazette Editorial Board has endorsed Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen for Colorado attorney general, calling him the kind of prosecutor-first, public-safety-focused candidate the office badly needs. The piece frames Allen as a return to an attorney general who treats the job like a law-enforcement post instead of a taxpayer-funded cable-news green room.
The endorsement argues that Colorado’s AG office used to be viewed as a steward of public safety and public trust, but has drifted into ideological litigation, national political fights, and headline chasing while regular Coloradans wonder who is actually minding the store. The Gazette points to Allen’s prosecutorial record, his opposition to soft-on-crime “justice reform,” his work on fentanyl and violent crime, and his handling of the Club Q case as evidence that he understands the job description.
The Bullet Point Brief
- The Gazette says the attorney general’s office has wandered off the public-safety ranch and into the tall grass of ideological lawsuits, national politics, and “look at me” litigation. That is great for consultants. Less great for victims.
- Michael Allen is being pitched as the antidote: a career prosecutor who has actually spent time prosecuting criminals instead of polishing talking points for the next donor email.
- The endorsement highlights Allen’s pushback against Colorado’s soft-on-crime experiments, including a bill that would have narrowed what qualifies as first-degree murder. Because apparently one dead body was starting to feel too judgmental for the reform crowd.
- The Gazette points to Allen’s work on major violent crime and fentanyl cases, including creating an Organized Crime Unit and prosecuting the Club Q murderer, as evidence that he knows the courtroom is not just a backdrop for campaign footage.
- The bigger message is simple: Colorado does not need an attorney general auditioning for Resistance Theater: The Sequel. It needs one who remembers the client is Colorado, not MSNBC, activist nonprofits, Boulder donor circles, or the next campaign committee.
My Bottom Line
The attorney general is supposed to be Colorado’s top law-enforcement officer. Not the state’s chief virtue-signaling litigator. Not the in-house counsel for the progressive movement. Not the guy in the suit standing behind a podium explaining why the latest national lawsuit is actually about “protecting democracy” while your neighborhood is wondering why the catalytic converter went missing again.
This is the scam Coloradans are tired of. Ignore the disorder people can see with their own eyes. Downplay the public-safety failures they live with. Chase national headlines. Sue whoever the party tells you to sue. Then wrap the whole thing in enough moral frosting to make it look like a wedding cake for democracy. Meanwhile, actual citizens are left asking the one question government hates most: who is defending us?
That is why the Allen endorsement matters. Not because The Gazette put a stamp on him, although that is the peg. It matters because it points to a larger rot in the job description. The AG’s office has been treated by too many people like a launchpad, a resistance booth with subpoena power, and a taxpayer-funded audition reel for bigger political ambitions. That is not public service. That is career management with a law license.
Colorado needs an attorney general who gives a damn about prosecutions, victims, fentanyl, violent crime, public safety, and trust in institutions. We need someone who understands that “rule of law” is not a slogan you trot out when it polls well. It is the job. Michael Allen looks like a man who knows the difference. That alone makes him dangerous to the whole consultant-and-activist ecosystem that has been feeding off this office for years.
Source: The Gazette
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