Walker Stapleton comes from a long line of Colorado civic leaders and politicians, and he has the financial experience and skills to greatly improve operations in the state Treasurer's office. 

Treasurer Cary Kennedy is a government lifer who saddled with the costly Amendment 23, which serves her friends in the Colorado Education Assn. while it adds to Colorado's $1.2 billion budget deficit. Kennedy thinks Colorado's schools are underfunded. She wants to raise taxes again and again. And she has failed as a member of PERA's board, which has let its money managers lose millions by mismanaging the fund's investments for years. That Kennedy is desperate is shown by an e-mail that celebrates that she's "only" three percentage points behind Stapleton in the polls. And she's running a vicious ad and trying to mislead voters about Stapleton. If the anti-Obama wave is as big as expected, Stapleton will win this one.