Brauchler for Senate

Although South Metro District Attorney George Brauchler hasn’t indicated he’s running for the U.S. Senate, Democrats have been assailing him regularly for weeks from his courtroom tweets (he apologized) to not winning a death penalty in the James Holmes trial (he explained his strategy). Earlier in the year, Democrats’ fire was aimed at Mike Coffman, but after he left the field in June and the Holmes trial gained in visibility, Brauchler became the target.

Valerie Richardson addresses the Brauchler boomlet and the death penalty issue in the April 20 Colorado Statesman, ‘All eyes’ on rising GOP star Brauchler as speculation swirls over his next move.

Even before the trial began, however, Brauchler had put himself on the political radar by denouncing Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s May 2013 decision to grant an indefinite stay of execution for Chuck E. Cheese’s killer Nathan Dunlap.

The line that resonated most with Republicans was Brauchler’s comment to the Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels: “[A]t the end of the day, no one elected him to be the state bartender. They elected him to be governor.”

Dick Wadhams and other conservatives praised him:

“I think that all eyes are on District Attorney Brauchler at this point,” said Republican strategist Dick Wadhams. “He hasn’t been DA very long, but he had one of those defining moments when he was the lead Republican voice of opposition when Gov. Hickenlooper basically punted on whether to carry out the execution of the Chuck E. Cheese killer.”

“I think across the state, Republicans were so impressed by how he [Brauchler] conducted himself, the way he framed the issue and why it was so irresponsible of the governor to do what he did,” Wadhams said.

I weighed in with the view that he is likely the frontrunner to recruit as of today and that the death penalty decision is not a great handicap. It won him state and national visibility and his decision to pursue it was in alignment with public opinion. Needless to say, Democrats and the ACLU disagree.

Those who disagree with that analysis include Ciruli, who pointed to Colorado voters surveyed support sentencing Holmes to death by 63 to 32 percent, according to a July 27 Quinnipiac University Poll.

“The fact that he wasn’t able to get the death penalty because of one juror who was sympathetic to the mental-illness argument — I just don’t think that hurts him,” Ciruli said. “I think the net benefit is that, number one, he got tremendous visibility. This is one of the nation’s top mass-murder trials, and it was nationally covered. And that accrues to him on both the death penalty and the guilty verdict.”

See:
Colorado Statesman: 'All eyes' on rising GOP star Brauchler as speculation swirls over his next move

Colorado Statesman: Death penalty for George Brauchler’s senate candidacy! shout Democrat wonks