Candidates for Colorado attorney general knocked each other and disagreed over how the state’s top law enforcement official can best serve the people at a Wednesday night debate in Denver.

Republican candidate George Brauchler hammered home his courtroom experience at the debate, hosted by the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. He also noted that one of his top prosecutorial priorities would be to decentralize the office with regional offices intended to support local law enforcement across the state in fighting drug trafficking and black market marijuana grows.

The attorney general should defend the people and uphold the laws of Colorado, not to be “an ideological Don Quixote, trying to find some other political windmill to tilt at,” said Brauchler, currently district attorney for the 18th Judicial District.

Democratic candidate Phil Weiser said he would “sue pharmaceutical companies who lied to people, made money and got people hooked on opioids,” fight to protect Roe v. Wade – the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion – and combat employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“I stand for equal treatment for everybody,” said Weiser, a former University of Colorado Law School dean.

The two men are vying to succeed Cynthia Coffman, who did not seek re-election so she could mount what turned out to be an unsuccessful campaign for governor.

Multiple times during the debate, Brauchler stated that Weiser’s stances equate to picking and choosing which laws to follow and enforce based on personal beliefs.

He compared his own position to Weiser’s: “One is activism, the other is an attorney general.”

The two candidates even exchanged jabs on why they were running for the attorney general seat.

Weiser noted that Brauchler entered the attorney general race after dropping out of the governor’s race late last year.

“You decided to run because of who got elected president, and I think Colorado deserves more than that,” Brauchler said to Weiser.

There are issues on which Brauchler said he would push back against the federal government. One such issue is an attempt from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to crack down on legally regulated recreational marijuana in Colorado.

“Agree or disagree, 55 percent of us put it in the constitution, and that alone makes it worthy of defense and worthy of a vigorous defense by an attorney general,” Brauchler said of the state vote to legalize recreational marijuana.

Weiser said he would sue the federal government to prevent the separation of immigrant families at America’s southern border, to continue protection for those under the umbrella of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act, to uphold the Affordable Care Act and to protect the state’s air quality from neighbors following the Environmental Protection Agency’s lax regulations.

In addition, Weiser said he would fight to “protect” Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, which President Trump acted to greatly shrink as the U.S. Department of the Interior looks to expand the scope of oil and gas exploration in the area.

But Brauchler questioned whether Colorado’s attorney general has cause to take on all of those issues. For example, Bears Ears isn’t even in Colorado, Brauchler said.

Brauchler added that he believes Sessions should defend the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, but said that is his job and not the responsibility of a state’s attorney general.

“I’ll stand up to the federal government when they infringe on our rights and our sovereignty,” he said.

When asked, Weiser said the No. 1 issue affecting ordinary Coloradans is the rampant opioid epidemic, from which the death toll continues to rise.

Brauchler said the top issue, in his mind, is mental health problems left untreated. Curbing addiction and mental health problems would empty the state’s jails, he said.

If elected, Weiser said he would also focus on identity theft, elder abuse and criminal justice reform. Brauchler emphasized a need to expand the fight against human trafficking.