Dems mum on potential lawsuit
Face The State Staff Report
While Democrats are alleging special treatment in a recent decision by Secretary of State Mike Coffman to allow three Republican state legislative candidates to appear on the November ballot, government officials, together with GOP activists, claim recent court decisions compelled Coffman to allow the trio on the ballot. Capitol insiders are now abuzz about whether Democrats will sue over the decision.
Specifically, Democrats object to the fact that Coffman has allowed GOP candidates onto the November ballot a week after a previously stated deadline had passed. The candidates, Mary Arnold, who will challenge Rep. Debbie Benefield, D-Arvada, Natalie Menten, who is challenging Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, and Mary Wagner, who will run against incumbent Democrat Rep. Gwyn Green, D-Golden, were all appointed by vacancy committees in Jefferson County after previous candidates had dropped out their respective races.
At issue: While Coffman, a Republican, had maintained a June 5th deadline for vacancy committee appointments, he extended it to June 12th after consulting with Attorney General John Suthers, also a Republican. According to Coffman spokesman Rich Coolidge, previous case law requires that "even if a candidate misses a proposed deadline, but the candidate can still make it onto the ballot before the ballot is certified [on June 13th this year] then the [Secretary of State] should allow the candidate access to the ballot."
Specifically, Suthers based his decision on two key decisions that together compel the Department of State to use a "substantial compliance" threshold for enforcing deadlines for ballot access. Previously, the Department of State twice failed to enforce similar ballot access deadlines, and in one case, faced $48,000 in attorneys fees for losing the suit.
Multiple interview requests to Democrat Party Chair Pat Waak and party legal counsel Martha Tierney were not returned Wednesday.
In an interview with the Denver Post, however, Waak labeled the process unfair and asserted "we were given a different set of dates and rules than the Republicans were."
Coolidge rejects Waak's contention, saying both parties were informed of Coffman's decision and the dates on the same day by both email and U.S. mail. Democrats now have the option of filing a district court cases, but according to Coolidge, he hasn't heard of any efforts to engage in litigation.
GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams believes the issue won't go to court. "The Democrats are just trying to pick a fight that isn’t there and if [they] really feel strongly about this, they can file a legal complaint. They ought to put up or shut up but it appears that Coffman is on solid legal footing here."