Coyote Gulch

Friday, December 10, 2004

Denver November 2004 Election
As we reported yesterday Governor Owens has appointed John Suthers to replace Senator-elect Ken Salazar as Attorney General, according to the Rocky Mountain News [December 10, 2004, "Suthers picked for AG"]. From the article, "The choice was immediately praised by the man Suthers was named to replace - Ken Salazar, who will be sworn in as a U.S. senator Jan. 4...Suthers said he never asked for or lobbied for the job, but the governor knew he was interested. Suthers now gets the job he ran for in 1998 but lost to Salazar...Suthers frequently said corporate crime was a priority for his office, and prosecutors should explore whether a crime is committed when executives make false statements to boost a stock while selling out at the same time."
Here's the coverage of the Suthers announcement from the Denver Post [December 10, 2004, "U.S. attorney is Owens' nominee to replace Sen.-elect Ken Salazar"]. From the article, "Suthers, 53, is a lifelong Colorado resident and a veteran of Republican political campaigns. He was elected twice as El Paso County's district attorney, won the Republican nomination against Salazar in 1998 and co-chaired President Bush's 2000 campaign in his county...Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald, the incoming state Senate president, said people who have worked with Suthers respect his ability and consider him more practical than ideological."
6:31:50 AM

2004 Presidential Transition
Coloradan, Gale Norton, will continue her run as Secretary of the Interior, according to the Rocky Mountain News [December 10, 2004, "Bush keeps Norton as Interior secretary"].
Coloradan, Jim Nicholson, has been nominated by President Bush to take over the Deparment of Veterans Affairs, according to the Rocky Mountain News [December 10, 2004, "Nicholson Veterans Affairs nominee"]. From the article, "Bush praised Nicholson for his rise from humble beginnings to become a West Point graduate, decorated Vietnam War veteran, Colorado developer and one-time chairman of the Republican National Committee. A devout Catholic, he was appointed Vatican ambassador in 2001, submitting his credentials to Pope John Paul II just two days after the Sept. 11 attacks. He will remain in that job pending the confirmation process...Colorado Republicans heaped praised on Nicholson, although veterans activists said he faces a daunting challenge because he does not bring with him decades of experience on veterans issues, as Principi did when he took the job in 2001. Among other experience, Principi was chief counsel and staff director to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in the 1980s and became deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs from 1989 to 1992...Nicholson served eight years of active duty in the Army and continued another 22 years in the Reserve. In civilian life, he earned a master's degree in public policy from Columbia University and a law degree from the University of Denver. He spent two years practicing law in Denver, but gained much of his reputation in the development world."
6:20:54 AM

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