The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Endorsement: Pam Anderson for Colorado secretary of state

Pam Anderson is everything a secretary of state should be.

As we noted here when endorsing her in last June’s Republican primary, Anderson is an exceedingly experienced, knowledgeable, competent and widely respected elections expert. She served as Jefferson County clerk and as executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association. She knows her stuff.

Just as important, she has a solid reputation for integrity and impartiality and for rising above partisan politics.

These are essential attributes in running elections in one of Colorado’s most populous counties, as she did for years — and for overseeing elections statewide, which is the principal duty of the office she seeks.

All of which is why we highly recommend a vote on this fall’s mail ballot for Pam Anderson as Colorado’s next secretary of state.

Anderson is the polar opposite of Colorado’s current, first-term secretary of state, Jena Griswold — who has made a mockery of the office.

If you’ve heard of Griswold, it’s not because she has made any substantive contributions since she was elected in 2018. It’s because of her relentless, shameless self-promotion.

Griswold is a Democrat, but that’s beside the point here. There are prominent Colorado Democrats who could serve with distinction as secretary of state. And then there’s Griswold.

Everything about her tenure in office smacks of a breathlessly ambitious pol using her current perch as a mere stepping stone to higher office.

Her campaign war chest, amassed through ceaseless fund-raising appeals, drives a perpetual-motion publicity machine. It cranks out partisan diatribes on topics that often have no connection to her official duties. Like her call in 2019, months after taking office, for a boycott of Alabama over its abortion law.

When she does reference her actual responsibilities as secretary of state, it also tends to be in a starkly partisan context to advance her party’s agenda — and of course to raise her profile. Consider her bizarre claim last month, in an interview with the left-wing British newspaper The Guardian, that if Republicans are elected to her post in Colorado and other states, “The country could lose the right to vote in less than three months.”

In that same interview, she again trotted out her now-ritual complaint about less-than-credible threats directed at her office — as if trash talk were a novelty in politics.

“It gets to the point where it is really hard to do your job when someone’s telling you over and over how they’re going to hang you.” Oh, please.

Colorado, here’s your chance to relieve Griswold of what apparently is too onerous a burden for her.

Pam Anderson’s campaign platform underscores the need to bring impartiality, integrity and dignity back to the

The Colorado state Capitol building in denver.

“Pam Anderson is everything a secretary of state should be.”

Secretary of State’s Office.

Among other initiatives underlined on her campaign website, Anderson will create a professional code of conduct for the SOS to “rebuild public trust,” and she will, “rebuild the leadership, organization and management in the office.”

Anderson pledges: “I will work with stakeholders and across the partisan aisle …”; “Office policy and public outreach will not be driven by special interests…”; “I will not weaponize the office…,” and, “I will not fundraise off active investigations or legal cases.”

That’s refreshing. It’s also the kind of stuff Griswold should have to write 100 times on a chalkboard.

Elect Pam Anderson as Colorado’s secretary of state. She will bring back the competence, professionalism, integrity and impartiality that the office — and our elections — deserve.

OPINION

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2022-09-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/281831467604645

The Gazette, Colorado Springs