Colorado’s four Democratic candidates for attorney general clashed sharply Thursday night in a debate that repeatedly returned to one theme: whether the state’s top lawyer should be a courtroom veteran or a political fighter.

The contenders sparred over Trump‑era lawsuits, water battles, and the commutation of Tina Peters’ sentence, with fundraising frontrunner Secretary of State Jena Griswold drawing much of the scrutiny.

The debate was sponsored by the Denver Gazette, Colorado Politics, and the Common Sense Institute.

Hetal Doshi, a former deputy attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice under the Biden administration, told the audience at the PACE Center that her career has been largely devoted to public service. That includes seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Colorado, where she prosecuted environmental crimes, corporate fraud, and government waste. She said that background gives her the experience needed to ensure Colorado has a strong attorney general.

Michael Dougherty, the district attorney for Boulder County’s 20th Judicial District since 2018 and a former attorney in the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, said he is running for attorney general to defend Colorado against what he called the greatest threat to democracy he has seen in his lifetime.

Griswold, Colorado’s Secretary of State since 2018, said that as attorney general, she would take on corporate misconduct, support labor, and protect abortion access. Her legal practice from 2011 to 2013 at a Washington, D.C., firm focused on Latin America and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Griswold quickly pointed to her handling of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for tampering with election equipment.

“When Tina Peters tried to sabotage her elections, I removed her from direct election oversight and helped make sure she was held accountable,” Griswold said.

David Seligman, an attorney and executive director of the workers’ rights organization Towards Justice since 2018, highlighted his work on behalf of working families, Amazon delivery drivers, renters, and immigrants held in ICE facilities.

Cases to pursue

Moderator Ernest Luning of Colorado Politics started off by asking how the candidates would prioritize the cases they would pursue.

All cited the environment.

Dougherty’s litmus test is for cases that cause the greatest harm to Colorado, with priorities such as protecting elections, water and the environment.

Griswold said she has led efforts to protect democracy from what she described as threats posed by the MAGA movement and Donald Trump, and that she would continue that work as attorney general.

She also argued that state law should be updated to allow the attorney general to move more quickly to enforce environmental protections, rather than waiting for action from the governor or state agencies.

Seligman said, “The wealthy and powerful are trampling our rights and getting away with it, adding that he would fight for the most marginalized, particularly immigrants, and confront the affordability crisis and prioritize environmental enforcement.

Doshi said she ran a team of 800 lawyers and professional staff while at the Department of Justice and is familiar with the tradeoffs that occur when choosing one case over another.

Doshi said when it comes to holding polluters or corporations accountable, she’s already done it.

“Colorado needs to make sure that we have a leader for whom this is not the first time at the rodeo and knows how to use those resources,” she said, the first of several subtle digs by the candidates at Griswold’s lack of legal experience.

Fighting Trump

The candidates also stated their positions on Democratic states filing lawsuits to challenge the Trump administration’s policies and executive orders.

Seligman said he supports every case Attorney General Phil Weiser has brought against the Trump administration, but added that the job also requires using state law to hold the administration accountable for what he described as corruption and cruelty.

Doshi said it’s essential for Colorado’s next attorney general to work closely with other Democratic attorneys general, noting they have filed 75 lawsuits against the Trump administration in the past year. She added that she would have supported all of those cases — and possibly more — though she emphasized that pursuing such litigation also depends on the resources available.

Griswold said Colorado has joined 65 of the 105 lawsuits filed by the Democratic attorneys general and that’s the appropriate balance.

Griswold added that being anti-Trump is not a complete political philosophy, and “we have to be for something on the other side of the Trump presidency.”

Dougherty said the next attorney general needs to do more than post criticisms of Trump online — they need to defeat him in court. He added that he would use the same standards Weiser applied when deciding which lawsuits to pursue.

“And that’s where experience matters,” Dougherty said. “The last thing in the world Colorado needs at a time when we’re so divided already is a hyper-partisan attorney general who’s looking to get their face on cable TV. I’m the guy who goes to court to say I’m here on behalf of people.”

Protecting Colorado water

Water issues are no longer just a concern for farmers, ranchers, and utilities — they’ve also become a major focus for the Attorney General’s Office. That includes the looming negotiations over the Colorado River agreement and a lawsuit filed by Nebraska seeking to use eminent domain to build a canal on Colorado land.

“I’m sick and tired of corporations and billionaires stealing our water,” Seligman said, citing data centers and fracking wells. “Let’s take on the easy stuff first,” he said, by making sure Colorado farmers, ranchers and small businesses get the water they need.

As to the Colorado River, Seligman said Colorado would need to continue protecting its interests, especially against the lower basin states and “big ag monopolists” in Arizona who grow alfalfa for export to China.

Doshi noted the lawsuit over the Colorado River compact will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, which has been hostile to Colorado interests. “There is a special delicacy about taking this fight to the court as well,” she said, suing “sister states” that could be helping in the fight against the Trump administration.

Dougherty said he will be the prosecutor who defends Colorado’s water. But the negotiations between the upper and lower basin states have been a failure, and that means the Trump administration will decide the solution for a state that he’s been retaliating against. “I’ll defend Colorado’s water against other states,” he added.

Griswold cited her days growing up alongside the Big Thompson River. “The best legal defense is a sound and legally defensible water administration,” she said. If a call on the river comes, she would defend Colorado’s water rights.

As to the Perkins Canal in Nebraska, Seligman said Nebraska’s actions are scary and have little precedent.

Doshi and Dougherty both said the Nebraska case was brought for political reasons. The court will never get to the legal issue – eminent domain – because Nebraska never completed the negotiations with Colorado, Doshi said.

But Colorado will prevail in court, Doshi added.

“I would not say this was an invasion by Nebraska,” Griswold said, adding that the suit should be part of a “holistic approach” to water. She also noted the attorney general would not be alone in the fight, with a team of water and natural resource experts who have been working on this case.

Courtroom experience

Should the attorney general have courtroom experience?

That’s been a knock against Griswold, who has falsely claimed on the campaign trail that she argued the 2024 Trump v. Anderson case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Doshi said the current Trump administration is an open-air corruption market. “The only place where the theater of battle is succeeding is the courtroom,” she said. “It’s not enough to be a figurehead leader and an attorney general who says ‘I’m simply going to rely on a wonderful dedicated career staff.'”

Doshi added, “I don’t believe in asking my staff to do something that I myself have not done,” pointing to her experience in civil, criminal, federal and appellate court.

Dougherty said this isn’t a race for governor or U.S. Senate. “You need an attorney to be the attorney general, and that means going to court and leading people on cases.”

Griswold countered that the attorney general is not a trial attorney. That work involves drafting, reviewing, and enforcing rules and contracts, advising agencies, and managing a large office. That’s why her experience is more relevant to the job, she explained.

Seligman disagreed. The next attorney general will have to use the law in bold, courageous and imaginative ways “to take on the rampage of corruption and corporate abuse” that is hijacking democracy.

Seligman added, “That’s the kind of experience we need in this office right now. That’s the work that I’ve been doing throughout my career.”

Griswold added she is the only candidate “with the experience that Coloradans care most about, taking on Donald Trump, standing up to Trump.”

She noted she is being sued by the DOJ for refusing to hand over sensitive voter data. “As Secretary of State, I’ve stood up to him, and as attorney general, I will take on Trump in that case.”

Tina Peters

The candidates were also asked about their views on Tina Peters’s nine-year prison sentence and whether they thought it was too harsh.

“I do not believe that someone like Tina Peters, someone who has caused more harm to our democracy than any other person in the state of Colorado, should get special treatment because Trump is retaliating against the state of Colorado,” Griswold said.

Griswold said the intervention by Gov. Jared Polis — after the Appeals Court directed the District Court to reconsider the sentence — was “highly inappropriate and set a dangerous precedent for both Colorado and the nation.”

Seligman declined to answer, stating he didn’t have all the facts presented to the District Court, although he had strong feelings about the governor’s actions.

Doshi said the issue isn’t whether the sentence was too harsh — it’s whether the judicial process should have been bypassed to let the governor override the jury’s verdict. She called the decision to commute the sentence an absolute betrayal.

Dougherty said that if the sentence was truly too harsh, then the governor should have reviewed the cases of every other non‑violent offender and person of color in prison. He argued that the only reason she was released was that she is a political ally of Trump.

“It was an absolute miscarriage of justice that the governor bent the knee to the president.”