The handshakes Don Quick exchanged with local Democratic activists Saturday night at Carver Brewing Co. almost outpaced the beers getting downed as dozens of party faithful packed themselves into the bar’s backroom to hear their nominee for Colorado Attorney General.
Quick, a former two-term district attorney for Adams and Broomfield counties, got his biggest applause when he said he supported marriage equality, likening prohibitions of same-sex marriage to Jim Crow laws forbidding interracial marriage.
“I don’t think the government has the right to say who we love or who we marry,” he said.
The crowd included state Rep. Mike McLachlan; District Attorney Todd Risberg; Durango City Councilor Dick White; Denise Bohemier, chairwoman of La Plata County Democratic Party. Also in the crowd were candidates running for local offices.
Asked about his stance on Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a state constitutional amendment that limits the taxing and spending powers of state government, Quick pled ignorance: “I’ll start getting informed on that after the campaign.”
He struck a delicate rhetorical balance, characterizing himself as tough on crime – he repeatedly denounced sex offenders and murderers – and was inclined to see most crime as a social failure.
He said the criminal-justice system unfairly victimized some groups.
“There are way too many kids of color being tossed into prison,” he said.
Quick said he opposed Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s attempts to introduce voter-identification laws.
Critics have said voter-ID laws amount to a thinly veiled attempt to disenfranchise racial minorities, who vote heavily Democratic.
Some of Quick’s best material was not political. At one point, he touted his background as a lawyer, and his previous stint as Ken Salazar’s top deputy in the AG’s office, saying he was, by far, the most qualified candidate in the Attorney General race.
“But I’m only the second smartest lawyer in my family,” citing his wife, Kerrie, as the superior legal mind.
He lovingly described one son who plays in a rock band and lives in the family basement: “I don’t need him to get on the superhighway of life. But it would be nice if he drove into the parking lot of life and took a few laps.”
Already, Quick has raised nearly $300,000 this cycle.
Cynthia Coffman, who Quick described as his likely Republican opponent, has raised $220,000.
In an interview after the event, Quick said his campaign had been able to raise and save more money than Coffman’s, but that he anticipated the race would be flooded with out-of-state donations.
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
An earlier version of this article misspelled Denise Bohemier’s first name and misstated her title. Mike McLachlan’s last name also was misspelled.
