New Law Blogs

Dems Attack GOP Senate Nominee Over Reprimand During Tenure as AUSA

By Andrew Ramonas

Democrats are taking aim at the Republican Senate nominee in Colorado for his “reckless disregard” as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the state.

Ken Buck (Wikipedia)

A new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee focuses on a rebuke GOP nominee Ken Buck received from then-Colorado U.S. Attorney John Suthers in 2001. Suthers sent a letter of reprimand to Buck for criticizing a gun case to lawyers who represented firearms dealers. He was also required to take ethics classes.

Buck, who led the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s office at the time, left a couple months after receiving the letter. He had worked at the office since 1990.

“You don’t learn right from wrong in class,” the narrator of the news ad says. “And you certainly don’t learn ethics in Washington, D.C.”

Buck spokesman Owen Loftus told CNN that the spot is the product of a “smear and run campaign.” The Republican nominee is running against Sen. Michael Bennet (D) in the November election.

The race is tight with Buck having only a single-digit lead over Bennet in the polls, according to CNN.

Full post as published by Main Justice on October 12, 2010 (boomark / email).