CBS Colorado reports that Secretary of State Jena Griswold, now running for Colorado Attorney General, is facing questions about her résumé, campaign biography, and legal qualifications. The article says three former Colorado Attorneys General, Ken Salazar, John Suthers, and Cynthia Coffman, raised concerns about what the job requires and whether Griswold’s background fits the office.
The opening absurdity is the outhouse. Griswold has repeatedly used a story about growing up in a cabin with an outhouse while on food stamps. CBS reports her campaign provided a photo of the outhouse, but Larimer County records showed the home had a septic tank installed years before she moved in. Her campaign says she never claimed there was no indoor plumbing, only that she used both. Fine. But that is the whole point. Colorado politics has become an art form: dress up the story, leave out the inconvenient plumbing, then act wounded when someone reads the plaque.
The Bullet Point Brief
- CBS reports Griswold has used the outhouse story for years to illustrate how far she has come. The outhouse existed. So did indoor plumbing, according to the records CBS cited. That is not the crime of the century. It is just a perfect little campaign metaphor with a moon-shaped door.
- Griswold says she practiced international anti-corruption law for two years at a D.C. law firm. CBS reports her campaign’s own timeline showed she was there no more than 15 months, and only five months after earning her law license. Details are stubborn little barn cats.
- Her campaign told CBS she has represented one client in court, in family court, before she was licensed in D.C., and that this is the only client she has ever represented in court. For someone seeking to become the state’s top lawyer, that is not a footnote. That is the whole damn chapter.
- CBS reports former AGs Ken Salazar, John Suthers, and Cynthia Coffman all emphasized the seriousness of the office and the need for strong legal judgment and experience. Translation: the Attorney General’s Office is not a cable-news audition, a resistance bumper sticker, or a soft landing for ambitious politicians between offices.
- Griswold’s campaign argues the AG is an executive who manages a large office and makes strategic decisions, and says she has that experience. That is the defense. The question for voters is whether executive branding is enough when the job involves courts, water, criminal justice, consumer protection, constitutional fights, and the legal machinery of the state.
My Bottom Line
This is not about whether Jena Griswold has ambition. Obviously she does. Colorado statewide politics is packed with people using one office as a stepladder to the next one while pretending the ladder is public service with a logo.
The issue is whether the Attorney General’s Office should be treated like another branding platform. It should not. The AG is the lawyer for the state of Colorado. That means major lawsuits, settlements, agency defense, federal fights, criminal justice, water law, consumer protection, civil rights, and constitutional messes that do not care how polished your campaign ad looks.
CBS did not prove that Griswold broke the law. It did raise fair questions about how she describes her background and how much legal experience she actually brings to the job. Those questions are legitimate. Treating every criticism as some dark plot is how political machines protect weak résumés with smoke machines and hashtags.
Colorado does not need another smug résumé hologram in statewide office. It needs an Attorney General who can do the job, explain the record straight, and handle the state’s legal machinery without needing former occupants of the office to stand nearby holding a sign that says, “Are we sure about this?”
Source: CBS Colorado
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