It is often said the most dangerous place to be in American politics is between a blindly ambitious candidate and a television camera. 

In contrast to decades of dedicated service by previous Colorado secretaries of state, incumbent Democrat Jena Griswold has made media exposure her first, foremost and only pursuit for the past six years. And it has finally caught up with her as her incompetence has roiled Colorado’s election process.

We now know four months ago — four months! — passwords for election computers in 63 of 64 counties were exposed, allegedly by an employee of Griswold’s office but this fact was not even known by Griswold until recently.  Talk about staying on top of her job. 

Once she did find out, she did not alert the 64 county clerks or any other public official including Gov. Jared Polis. When the password exposure was revealed, media maven Griswold was initially unavailable for public comment.

When she begrudgingly did do media interviews, they were nothing short of public relations disasters as she bobbed and weaved and refused to take responsibility for this assault on Colorado’s election process within the office she was elected to run.

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It does not strain the imagination to believe there is far more to this scandal than just some nameless employee who went rogue but it will take more than Griswold’s “internal investigation” to learn more. The Denver district attorney, the Colorado attorney general and even the FBI should be involved just like when the convicted and imprisoned Tina Peters was caught illegally tampering with election equipment in Mesa County.

Fortunately, 64 outstanding county clerks around the state ultimately conduct Colorado’s elections and they will ensure they will be done right. Griswold’s antagonistic relationship with a large number of the clerks is well known.

Griswold benefited from deep animosity in the Colorado electorate for then-President Donald Trump when she unseated Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams in 2018, and that same dynamic propelled her to reelection in 2022 over former Republican Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson. This fiasco would flatly not have occurred under Williams or Anderson.

Griswold should resign. Her second term does not expire until after the 2026 midterm election when open seats for governor, attorney general, state treasurer and secretary of state are on the ballot along with U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, who is running for a second term.

Not only can Colorado not afford two more years of blindly partisan incompetence, it is no secret Griswold plans on seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2026 — so her obsession with media attention while not paying attention to her job will be in overdrive.

Griswold would be one of several high-profile Democrats who might run for governor.

Gov. Jared Polis is eminently capable of appointing a real secretary of state to complete the term through 2026. In fact, there are three relatively recent examples when governors of different parties rose to the challenge of appointing a new secretary of state when the office became vacant.

Republican Secretary of State Vikki Buckley tragically died in office in July of 1999 after being elected in 1994 and reelected in 1998. Buckley was the first African-American woman to be elected as secretary of state.

Republican Gov. Bill Owens appointed Arapahoe County Clerk Donetta Davidson to the office, which was almost unanimously applauded by county clerks around the state. Davidson had the unique distinction of previously serving as county clerk in rural Bent County and later in suburban Arapahoe County.

Davidson resigned in 2005 after she was appointed to the Election Assistance Commission in Washington. D.C. Owens appointed former state Sen. Gigi Dennis of Pueblo to complete the term.

Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman was elected in 2006 but resigned in 2009 after being elected to U.S. Congress from the Sixth Congressional District in 2008. Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter was under no legal requirement to appoint a Republican to replace Coffman.

Ritter appointed former state Rep. Bernie Buescher of Grand Junction who had also been the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 1998. Buescher ran with Lt. Governor Gail Schoettler, who was defeated by Owens. Owens became the first Republican governor to be elected in 28 years, and he remains the only Republican governor to serve in the past 50 years.

Interestingly, Republican women served as secretary of state for 32 consecutive years from 1974 to 2006, including Mary Estill Buchanan, Natalie Meyer, Vikki Buckley, Donetta Davidson and Gigi Dennis.

Buescher served with distinction but he was unseated in 2010 when 106,000 more Republicans than Democrats voted in the general election.

Resigning is not only the proper thing to do given this password fiasco, it also would allow Griswold to run for governor full time for the next two years — not that she wouldn’t have done that anyway even as secretary of state.

Since she cannot run for reelection, running for governor would give voters the opportunity to issue their own verdict on her blindly partisan, media-obsessed, sloppy tenure as secretary of state.

And Colorado Republicans, who have been bogged down by the deep unpopularity of Trump for the past three election cycles as Democrats now have unfettered power at all levels, just might be competitive in the 2026 gubernatorial election, especially if Griswold is the nominee.

Jena Griswold for governor!

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who worked for U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong for nine years before managing campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Gov. Bill Owens.