Griswold a target of criticism
In two short but tumultuous years, Jena Griswold has transformed Colorado’s typically low- key secretary of state position into something of a national spectacle.
And Griswold, 36, is just fine with that.
The youngest American secretary of state and first Democratic woman to hold the position in Colorado faces constant accusations that she is politicizing her position and covets higher office. But she and her supporters shrug off the criticism as typical for a young woman in a position of power, especially one standing up to President Donald Trump and other Republicans who would call Colorado’s bestofclass election system into question.
“There isn’t a strong or a
long history of women in these positions, and obviously I’m going to have some views that are different than the last 144 years of leadership in statewide office,” Griswold said. “And the nature of what we are dealing with is different. We have a president and a federal administration who have directly attacked Colorado’s elections.”
At the same time, however, more muted critiques churn among members of her own party and among the state’s county clerks. Some pointed comments by the Broomfield clerk this year resulted in Griswold’s brother reaching out to the clerk’s bosses.
Griswold said she is keeping her focus on holding Colorado’s position as the safest state in which to cast a vote.
A brief history
Born and raised for a decade in Toledo, Ohio, Griswold spent the last half of her childhood in Estes Park. She graduated from high school there before heading to college at Whitman College in Washington state and later the University of Pennsylvania Law School, from which she earned her juris doctorate.
The secretary often reflects on her childhood in Colorado, when her family lived off food stamps with an outhouse outside their home. Griswold notes that she is the first in her family to graduate from a fouryear university in explaining her motivation for wading into public service. She is fluent in Spanish and studied salsa dance across the world.
Griswold worked for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re- election campaign in Washington, D. C., and later served as a liaison to the federal government for then- Gov. John Hickenlooper.
She tested her experience as a voter rights attorney at the polls as a first- time candidate in the 2018 midterms, running for secretary of state against Republican incumbent Wayne Williams. Pushback against Trump’s presidency that year helped produce a Democratic sweep of state leadership positions, including the secretary of state’s office.
From the start, Griswold sought to brand her tenure with her own style, to the dismay of members of the old guard, such as Williams’ predecessor, Republican Scott Gessler.
A secretary of state must either come into office with subject- matter expertise or build it quickly, Gessler said.
“She does not know her ( expletive),” Gessler said. “This is not a U. S. Senate office where people are called on just to opine; this is an administrative agency where you have to do things and make it run well.”
Last week, Griswold drew quick criticism from Gov. Jared Polis, other Democrats, Republicans and journalists when she asked national media to refrain from calling races or even announcing election results on election night.
She later deleted the tweet thread where she made the request and apologized for it, but she says she stands behind her intended message that other states are adopting new voting protocols that should be taken into consideration by reporters.
Gessler told The Post that Griswold has bloated her office’s staffing and budget. However, fellow Republican Bob Rankin, a state senator on of the Joint Budget Committee, said he hasn’t seen a substantial increase aside from an $ 8 million bump to handle the presidential primary.
But the office also collects fees, Gessler said, and indeed that cash increased under Griswold by more than 25% from 2018 to 2019 and remained there for 2020, according to a state budget report. The office employs 147 people — 7% more than it did in 2017.
Additional cash and workers are needed to expand and update the office, Griswold said, and she rejects the notion that she has no subject- matter expertise.
“When you’re a younger woman, people underestimate you,” Griswold said. “You’ve got to ignore the noise and focus on what’s important to being successful. No prior secretary of state in Colorado has had to navigate these challenges, especially on top of a pandemic.”
Among the successes she cites are campaign finance and lobbyist transparency reforms, new programs to help voters track their ballots and fix signature discrepancies electronically, and an increased number of 24- hour ballot drop boxes.
Accusations of partisanship
Still, others say the secretary is too partisan. Amber McReynolds, Denver’s former director of elections and current CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, said Griswold gets very close to that line.
“I know all the secretaries of state. The ones that do the best are the ones that truly treat the job in a nonpartisan way,” McReynolds said.
During the presidential primary, Griswold made a habit of appearing with prominent Democratic candidates when they visited Denver — most memorably, reading a question from a 9- year- old boy to Pete Buttigieg about how to be brave about coming out that grabbed media national attention.
Republican state Senate candidate Suzanne Staiert complained that Griswold’s office filed a campaign finance complaint against her, although the statute of limitations clearly had passed — providing ammunition for Staiert’s Democratic opponent.
Griswold has appeared on national TV shows to correct misinformation spread by Trump and shot back at the president and U. S. Rep. Ken Buck, the state Republican Party chairman, on Twitter.
Such a strong social media presence could backfire, McReynolds said: “If there is a close election and you’re spending your day tweeting about one side or the other, that stuff is gonna end up in court when there’s an election challenge.”
But Griswold defends her high profile online as an essential part of her job — a view that’s echoed by Michal Rosenoer, executive director of Emerge Colorado, which recruits and trains Democratic women candidates.
“We have a president whose primary mode of talking to the public is Twitter, so it makes sense that our public officials essentially play the game they’ve been given,” Roseneor said.
Griswold’s higher profile could well be the new trend for secretaries of state across the country as partisan politics spill over into everyday issues, said Matthew Hitt, a political science professor at Colorado State University.
Conflicts with county clerks
Much of the work of the secretary of state’s office involves coordinating efforts with the 64 county clerks across Colorado — and that relationship has sometimes been rocky since Griswold took office.
Unaffiliated Broomfield City and County Clerk Jennifer Robinson noted concerns during a May conference call between the Colorado County Clerks Association and Griswold’s office.
“What I said on record was ‘ the clerks felt disrespected, that there wasn’t a collaboration between us and the secretary of state,’ ” Robinson said during a September disciplinary hearing, an audio recording of which was obtained by The Denver Post. She declined to comment for this story
After the May call, the association sent Griswold a seven- page document — also obtained by The Denver Post — that said some of the rules the secretary created because of the coronavirus pandemic were overbearing and others conflicted with state law.
Around that time, Broomfield Mayor Pat Quinn said he received a call from Griswold’s brother, Chris Griswold, a local political operative, who mentioned that Robinson wasn’t working well with his sister.
Broomfield City Councilman William Lindstedt also said he spoke with Chris Griswold, who called Robinson “kind of an interesting character.”
Quinn and Lindstedt said they were neither pressured nor asked to take action against Robinson.
However, emails came to the attention of Broomfield City and County Manager Jennifer Hoffman last month in which Robinson used the term “( expletive) show” to describe one of Griswold’s recent programs, and one of Robinson’s employees used a barnyard epithet in describing one of the secretary’s town hall meetings.
Hoffman chastised the employees in the disciplinary hearing.
Hoffman recommended the City Council fire Robinson. She was placed on a week of paid administrative leave but kept her job. Hoffman
declined to discuss the situation with The Post, calling it a personnel matter.
Others clerks have had concerns or disagreements, too. Chaffee County Clerk Lori Mitchell said Griswold’s penchant for the spotlight has made her position a bit more complicated and that the state office could communicate better with county clerks.
“There’s a lot going on, a lot of different messages, and we just need to stick with how we run elections here in Colorado,” Mitchell said. “Just stick to our rules and laws and make sure we’re running the best elections we can run.”
Those and other concerns might well be valid, Rosenoer said. Nobody’s perfect right out of the gate.
“Secretary Griswold was elected as a human to do a job, and it takes awhile to figure out that job,” she said. “If we want real people to run for office, we need to be able to give them some grace to figure out that role.”
Griswold said she is satisfied with her performance as secretary of state, which has increased voter turnout and improved security features even during an unprecedented pandemic. Now she’s looking to boost voter turnout and access on American Indian land and more.
Certainly there’s a possibility of pursuing higher office, said Griswold, who considered running against U. S. Sen. Cory Gardner months after she took office. But for now she’s focused on the here and now.
“I really don’t know where I will be in 10, 15 years,” Griswold said. “I wanted to give back to Colorado. I’m really happy to be able to serve as secretary of state, especially in these trying circumstances.”