Colorado Attorney General election, 2014

Colorado Attorney General Election

Primary Date: June 24, 2014

General Election Date: November 4, 2014

November 4 Election Winner: Cynthia Coffman

Incumbent prior to election: John W. Suthers

Colorado State Executive Elections Top Ballot Governor • Lieutenant Governor • Secretary of State • Attorney General Down Ballot Treasurer

The Colorado Attorney General election took place on November 4, 2014. Republican Cynthia Coffman defeated Democrat Don Quick and Libertarian David K. Williams to win the race to replace term-limited incumbent John W. Suthers as attorney general. Suthers, a fellow Republican, was first appointed to the position in 2005 and won election to two full terms, in 2006 and 2010.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election.

Colorado utilizes a semi-closed primary system. According to Section 1-7-201 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, " An eligible unaffiliated elector, including a preregistrant who is eligible under section 1-2-101 (2)(c), is entitled to vote in the primary election of a major political party without affiliating with that political party."

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article. The attorney general, secretary of state and state treasurer positions did not have contested primaries in 2014, and a single contested primary, for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, appeared on the June 24 primary ballot. Three of the five state executives sought re-election in 2014, while Suthers and Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a fellow Republican, retired, leaving their seats open.

This election developed into a competitive race between Cynthia Coffman (R), Don Quick (D) and David K. Williams (L). Jump to our polls section to review polling in the race, or learn more about past elections for attorney general in the past elections section.

Candidates

General election

Don Quick - Former District Attorney, 17th Judicial District
Cynthia Coffman - Deputy Attorney General
David K. Williams

Results

Attorney General of Colorado, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Cynthia Coffman	51.4%	1,002,626
	Democratic	Don Quick	42.4%	826,182
	Libertarian	David K. Williams	6.2%	120,745
Total Votes				1,949,553
Election results via Colorado Secretary of State

Race background

Originally appointed in 2005 to fill a vacancy in the office, outgoing Republican Colorado Attorney General John Suthers went on to win two full terms in 2006 and 2010. He was barred by term limits from running for a third consecutive term, leaving the attorney general seat open in the 2014 elections.

The seat was first marked as "vulnerable" to partisan switch in a March 2013 report Governing put together about the 2014 attorney general elections. In December, the same publication rated the race a "tossup." Out of a total of 31 attorney general seats up for election nationwide in 2014, only four received this rating, including Colorado. The others were Arizona, Arkansas and Wisconsin. Against the backdrop of Colorado's "purple" partisan landscape, statewide races are flagged as competitive early on because major party organizations and other interests get involved in order to exert influence over state government.

In this case, Democratic Party forces placed their faith and money in the campaign of Don Quick, a career prosecutor whom Governing called "a strong contender to flip the seat." Quick previously served as District Attorney for the 17th Judicial District, which includes Adams County, and spent six years as deputy attorney general under Suthers' predecessor, Democrat Ken Salazar.

Also vying to succeed Suthers as Colorado's chief legal officer was Republican contender Cynthia Coffman. Coffman served as chief deputy under Suthers. Coffman's husband, Mike Coffman (R), is a three-term U.S. Representative from Colorado's 6th Congressional District and a former Colorado Secretary of State. Like Quick, she had the connections and access to deep pockets necessary for running a legitimate statewide campaign.

Quick and Coffman were uncontested for their respective party nominations in the June 24 primary and advanced automatically to the general election. Libertarian attorney and party activist David K. Williams was the only third party candidate on the November ballot. Coffman won the general election on November 4, 2014.ref name=win>Colorado Secretary of State, "Colorado Election Results," accessed September 24, 2015</ref>

Money in the race

The Republican Attorney Generals Association spent $2.6 million on Coffman's campaign as of September. Quick was operating on less than one-quarter of that amount, and he tried to compensate for the relative funding shortage by "walking 2.6 miles a day in campaigning."

Campaign themes

Public Corruption

• Cynthia Coffman:

“	The attorney general needs the ability to investigate and prosecute public corruption.	”
—Cynthia Coffman

• Don Quick:

“	If elected, I will develop a public corruption prosecution unit within the office that will assist local jurisdictions with their corruption prosecutions and help restore the public trust in our government.	”
—Don Quick

• David K. Williams:

“	One of my top priorities is to investigate and prosecute government corruption.	”
—David K. Williams

Death penalty

• Cynthia Coffman:

“	After a conviction and death sentence, the state’s criminal appellate attorneys defend the legal process that resulted in capital punishment. In the case of Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap, the Governor decided to grant a guilty defendant a reprieve from the death penalty, a decision I vehemently oppose. When I am Attorney General, I will advocate for the death penalty as a suitable punishment for certain heinous crimes against the citizens of our state. And I will do all I can to assure the will of the people is carried out as prescribed by law	”
—Cynthia Coffman

• Don Quick:

“	[Nathan Dunlap] has received 20 years of due process, from both the state and federal courts, so I think the jury made their decision with Mr. Dunlap, and he has had all the protections of state and federal courts for the last 20 years, so I think the death penalty is appropriate for him.	”
—Don Quick

• David K. Williams:

“	Unlike any of my other opponents running for Attorney General, I am against the death penalty. Because the execution process is flawed in many areas, I cannot in good conscious allow an execution where the prisoner could later be found innocent. As Attorney General, I will fight to uphold those sentenced to capital punishment to be stayed from execution.	”
—David K. Williams

School Safety

• Cynthia Coffman:

“	Some of our country’s leading school safety experts live here in Colorado and have partnered with the Attorney General’s Office to provide training and programming for school administrators, teachers, and law enforcement officers. I look forward to growing this community outreach effort as your next Attorney General.	”
—Cynthia Coffman

• Don Quick:

“	Over the last 15 years, I have worked with schools and law enforcement agencies to create safer schools by keeping guns and gangs out of schools, implementing anti-bullying policies, facilitating early and appropriate intervention through information sharing, and establishing Safe 2 Tell, an anonymous call system allowing kids and their parents to report potential dangers. I will continue to focus on creating safe schools as your next Attorney General.	”
—Don Quick

Environment, Energy

• Cynthia Coffman:

“	If elected as your Attorney General, I will continue to take legal action and fight back when local jurisdictions break the law with their attempts to ban hydraulic fracturing. In those instances when interest groups and local governments try to usurp authority from law-abiding landowners and individuals in the oil and gas industry, I will enforce the law – even if it means taking overreaching, anti-drilling jurisdictions to court.	”
—Cynthia Coffman

• Don Quick:

“	As your next Attorney General, I will strengthen and expand our efforts to protect all of Colorado’s natural resources. I will make protection of our land, water and wildlife one of my top priorities. Protecting our environment and protecting Colorado’s energy economy are not mutually exclusive goals. To the best of my ability, I will use non-judicial methods to resolve natural resource disputes by bringing diverse interests to the negotiating table and supplying sound legal advice.	”
—Don Quick

Polls

Colorado Attorney General - 2014 General Election
Poll	Cynthia Coffman (R)	Don Quick (D)	David K. Williams (L)	Undecided	Margin of error	Sample size
Suffolk University September 9-16, 2014	40%	30%	4.8%	25.2%	+/-4.4	500
Public Policy Polling July 17-20, 2014	38%	29%	0%	32%	+/-3.8	653
Gravis Marketing July 8-10, 2014	42%	38%	9%	11%	+/-3.0	1,106
AVERAGES	40%	32.33%	4.6%	22.73%	+/-3.73	753
Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org.

**Due to the nature of the comparison, a placeholder figure of 0% is assigned to candidates not included in any given match-up round

Past elections

Margin of victory analysis

The average margin of victory in the past three races for attorney general was 14 percent. The smallest margin of victory was 9.1 percent in 2006, while the largest margin of victory was 20.2 percent in 2002. Percentages of votes for third-party candidates decreased from 4.4 percent in 2002 to 4.2 percent in 2006. The following chart compares the margin of victory for winners of attorney general races with the margin of victory for candidates who won the most votes for the top race on the ballot:

Margin of victory analysis
Year	AG candidate margin of victory (%)	Party of winning candidate	Top race on ballot	Party of winning candidate	Margin of victory (%)
2010	12.7		Governor of Colorado		14.5
2006	9.1		Governor of Colorado		16.8
2002	20.2		Governor of Colorado		28.9

2010

See also: Colorado Attorney General election, 2010

Colorado Attorney General, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	John Suthers Incumbent	56.3%	960,995
	Democratic	Stan Garnett	43.7%	744,601
Total Votes				1,705,596
Election results Colorado Secretary of State

2006

Colorado Attorney General, 2006
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	John Suthers	52.4%	789,034
	Democratic	Fern O'Brien	43.4%	652,268
	Libertarian	Dwight K. Harding	4.2%	63,122
Total Votes				1,504,424

2002

Colorado Attorney General, 2002
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Ken Salazar Incumbent	57.9%	803,200
	Republican	Marti Allbright	37.7%	522,281
	Green	Alison "Sunny" Maynard	2.5%	35,301
	Libertarian	Dwight K. Harding	1.9%	26,023
Total Votes				1,386,805

Campaign finance

Comprehensive donor information for this election has been collected by Follow the Money. Based on available campaign finance records, the candidates raised a total of $1,106,676 during the election. This information was last updated on April 7, 2015.

Campaign Contribution Totals
Candidate	Office	Result	Contributions
Don Quick	Colorado Attorney General		$588,693
Cynthia Coffman	Colorado Attorney General		$512,470
David K. Williams	Colorado Attorney General		$5,513
Grand Total Raised			$1,106,676

Key deadlines

Deadline	Event
March 31, 2014	Filing deadline (Primary, all parties)
June 24, 2014	Primary election
July 10, 2014	Filing deadline (General, Independents)
July 17, 2014	Filing deadline (General, Write-ins)
November 4, 2014	General election
November 21, 2014	Last day to complete the canvass for the general election
January 13, 2015	Inauguration day for state executive officials in general election

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Colorado + attorney + general + election"

Colorado Attorney General Election News Feed

See also

• Colorado Attorney General
• Colorado state executive official elections, 2014
• State executive official elections, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Attorney General of Colorado

Campaign links

Cynthia Coffman:

• Official campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Don Quick:

• Official campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

David K. Williams:

• Official campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter