The two candidates vying to be Denver’s next elected district attorney squared off in a debate at a Curtis Park bar Thursday evening, discussing violent crime, mental health, addiction, police accountability and other public safety issues in Colorado.
Ballots in the June 25 primary election — which will determine the winner in the race between the two Democrats, because there are no Republicans in the running — arrived to Denver voters’ mailboxes this week.
The race pits John Walsh, former U.S. attorney for Colorado, against Leora Joseph, director of the state Office of Behavioral Health and a former chief deputy district attorney in the 18th Judicial District, which covers Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties.
The candidates aligned on many major issues but sought to differentiate themselves on the details — from each other and from current District Attorney Beth McCann, whom both candidates criticized to some degree.
Joseph said her top priority in office would be to ensure crime victims are heard and supported in the criminal justice system. She also focused her comments on police accountability — saying she would hire a full-time prosecutor to focus solely on that issue — and the intersection of courts with defendants’ mental health.
“Things aren’t working,” she said. “We are in the middle of a massive mental health crisis. You only need to walk a half-block from here to feel it. And we need to find compassionate solutions.”
Walsh said his top priority in office would be to address Denver’s violent crime, and especially youth violence. He also focused his comments improving public safety downtown and bolstering the police force.
“There are kids bringing guns to school in their backpacks because they think they need to to stay safe,” he said. “We have lost the public safety battle when that happens.”
Joseph told debate attendees she would “do everything differently” from the way McCann has run the office and said she would seek creative solutions to systemic problems in the justice system, suggesting as an example that she could craft a plea agreement that gave a defendant a shorter prison sentence if the defendant completed a career apprenticeship program.
“This is the creative work the district attorney has to be a part of,” she said. “It can’t just be reactionary.”
Walsh also emphasized the importance of community collaboration between city, state and federal agencies, and he emphasized that his experience as U.S. attorney has prepared him to take on the role of district attorney in Denver.
“On fentanyl, with the terrible crisis we are facing there, we have to be sure we are aggressively targeting the drug dealers who are bringing this in — stuff I know how to do because I spent my whole federal career doing it,” he said.
Both candidates said they would work to improve the relationship between Denver police officers and the district attorney’s office — which Joseph described as full of tension and Walsh said had room for improvement. Both said they would enforce all of Colorado’s laws, and neither supported the immediate development of safe drug-use sites in Denver, citing a lack of data on the impact of such sites, although Walsh said he was open to a pilot program.
Both candidates have decades of experience as attorneys. Walsh worked as a prosecutor in California and spent 15 years in private practice in Colorado before he served six years as U.S. attorney, leaving that role in 2016 to return to private practice. Joseph spent more than 20 years as a district attorney in Massachusetts and Colorado and served as chief of staff to former Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman.
Joseph has raised about $324,000 and spent about $154,000 so far in her campaign, according to the Colorado secretary of state’s office. Walsh has raised about $442,000 and spent $174,000, the records show.
The winning candidate in the November general election will take office in January 2025 for a four-year term, replacing McCann, who served two terms.
