Denver November 2004 Election
The Denver Post has a article on the race for District Attorney in Denver [July 19, 2004, "First-time candidates are prosecution pros"]. From the article, "Vying for Ritter's spot are three savvy lawyers, all with extensive prosecution experience. They are Mitch Morrissey, who has been in the Denver DA's office for more than 20 years; Beth McCann, a former Denver deputy DA and manager of safety, and John Walsh, who grew up in Denver before establishing an enviable record as a white-collar-crime prosecutor in Los Angeles. A cornerstone of Morrissey's campaign is his reputation as a nationally known DNA expert. He can tick off the cities where DNA results have proved - years later - that men convicted of sexual assault never committed the crimes...McCann, 55, has been a true pioneer - part of the small group of women who graduated from largely male-dominated law schools in the early 1970s and then entered the male-dominated legal arena. She was the third woman hired as a prosecutor in the Denver district attorney's office, the first woman to work in the DA's white-collar-crime unit and Denver's first female manager of safety. She ruffled a few feathers - at the Denver police and fire departments - when she approved disciplinary actions against some police officers and sought to change the physical agility test required of Fire Department applicants. Some firemen believed McCann weakened the standards, which opened the way for women to join the department. She worked in the Denver DA's office for nearly eight years, prosecuting every kind of case, including DUIs, white-collar crimes, and child- abuse and murder cases...Unlike McCann and Morrissey, Walsh, 43, received his prosecution experience in Southern California, then returned to Denver, where he attended junior and senior high school. His campaign contributors are many of his former colleagues in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles and classmates at Stanford Law School, where he graduated with honors. In his first few years in the U.S. attorney's office - where he served from 1987 to 1995 - Walsh worked on a broad range of cases. They included cases involving narcotics, guns, immigration, smuggling, customs violations and bank robberies. He was a member of the team that investigated and prosecuted Charles Keating and other officers of California's Lincoln Savings & Loan. He also headed the investigation of Gov. Fife Symington of Arizona from its beginning until 1995, when he returned to Denver."
Here's an in-depth look at Bob Schaffer, from the Denver Post [July 19, 2004, "Savvy Schaffer rains fire on rivals, D.C."]. From the article, "Schaffer - a farmhand-turned-speechwriter-turned-politician - joined Colorado's U.S. Senate race when no other Republican wanted the job, and he refused to quit when multimillionaire Pete Coors decided to seek the party's nomination. The primary election is Aug. 10. Instead, showing the same determination and faith it took to survive that farming accident in his youth (eventually another farmhand pulled him to safety), Schaffer, a former state senator and U.S. representative, has given his politically inexperienced rival a tutorial in Campaigning 101. Schaffer won a majority of delegate votes at the Republican state convention last month; he has repeatedly exploited his rival's inexperience at debating; and he's hammered Coors Brewing Co.'s contributions to Democrats and other causes."
Here's an article from the Daily Camera claiming that Democrats have a chance this year to regain control of the State Senate and maybe the House as well. From the article, "Republican control over the Colorado Legislature may be slipping, politicians in both parties say, and could crack entirely on Election Day this November. Several senior Republican lawmakers say privately that they don't think they can hold the state Senate - which they dominate by only one vote now - and could even lose control of the House, where they have a five-seat majority. Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli said several tight races, coupled with events at the national level, particularly the declining popularity of the Bush administration, could bog down Republicans in Colorado, and could be enough to swing the balance of power from elephant to donkey." Thanks to MakesMeRalph for the link.
The Rocky Mountain News has learned that only two of the campaigns (Ken Salazar, Bob Schaffer) working for the U.S. Senate nomination are distributing tee shirts made in the USA [July 19, 2004, "Shirt flap trails Senate race"]. Oops.
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