Colorado’s elections for state attorney general usually are ho-hum affairs of civil debates and yard signs.Not this year.
Federal health care policy and a Colorado serial killer are top issues in the race between Republican incumbent John Suthers and Democrat Stan Garnett, the Boulder County district attorney. Garnett jumped into the race after Suthers joined other state attorneys general in a lawsuit challenging the health care overhaul.
Suthers said he believes the overhaul overreaches state rights. Unlike federal mandates for seat belts or Medicaid funding, where states enact laws or risk losing federal funds, the health care law calls for the federal government to fine citizens who don’t buy health insurance by 2014, Suthers said.
“I support everybody having health insurance,” Suthers said. “The only thing I don’t buy is violating the U.S. Constitution to get there.”
Garnett called Suthers’ move “an obstructionist lawsuit that goes to partisan sentiments.”
“If he really thought it was something worth doing, he should have filed it in Colorado,” Garnett said.
Gov. Bill Ritter has joined three other Democratic governors to fight the lawsuit. Ritter and the governors of Washington, Pennsylvania and Michigan are working with law firms handling the case for free.
Suthers said that when he joined the suit against the health care law in March, Ritter called him and read a news release criticizing the move. – More -
No comments:
Post a Comment