In Cynthia Coffman and Don Quick, the voters of Colorado face a difficult, but happy decision. Both are experienced, qualified, remarkably intelligent and highly personable. This state would be well-served with either as attorney general.
The choice then comes down to policy and philosophy, and with that Quick has the edge. His vision for the office is the more active and engaged. Attorney general is a powerful position and more expansively using that influence on behalf of the people of Colorado is a worthy aspiration.
Not that Coffman is a slouch. Like Quick, she is a defender of classroom safety and supports the existing Safe2Tell program that encourages children to report threats, bullying or incidents of violence. She also correctly backs the protection of homeowners against mortgage abuses and the aggressive prosecution of cyber crimes.
At the same time, though, she seems to think the gas and oil industry needs the AG’s help defending itself against local governments and appears to reflexively side with defendants in lawsuits.
Quick has better priorities. He lists four areas to target: safe communities and schools, protecting natural resources, fighting corruption and promoting equality and civil rights.
Most interesting is the first, not because there is any disagreement as to whether schools should be safe, but because of the connection Quick sees between education and law enforcement. He points out that when young people graduate from high school, their chances of entering the criminal justice system drop by half. As he puts it: “Investing in our kids is much more cost effective for taxpayers than simply building prisons.”
As an example of how that is done, Quick points to the Adams County Youth Initiative, a program he was involved with as district attorney. It brought together schools, law enforcement, nonprofits, mental-health providers and religious organizations to foster parental involvement, after-school programs, early-childhood education, bullying and substance-abuse prevention. After eight years, Quick says, graduation rates increased while overall juvenile crime dropped by 44 percent – 92 percent for the most violent crimes.
Whether Quick can replicate those results statewide remains to be seen. But that thinking deserves to be tried.
Vote for Don Quick for attorney general
