Dan Slater for Attorney GeneralFor The People. For A Change.

Biography of Dan Slater:

 

 

Dan Slater, a 37 year-old attorney in Cañon City, Colorado, was born in La Junta in 1972 and raised in Las Animas in rural Southeastern Colorado.  He is married to Brandy Slater (31) of Cañon City, and has four children, Madison (13), Ethan (10), and twins Logan and Demitrius (7). 

 

Brandy is also active in public service, currently serving as the Democratic Chair for the Fifth Congressional District and the Party Treasurer for the Fremont County Democrats. 

 

Dan’s parents are John Slater (born in Portland, Oregon in 1942) and Karen Slater (born in Enid, Oklahoma in 1950) of Mustang, Oklahoma.  John served for a number of years in the 1970s as the Librarian at Las Animas High School in Las Animas, Colorado.  Karen ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Bent County Assessor in 1986.

 

 

Dan represented Fremont and Custer counties on the Board of Governors of the Colorado Bar Association — the state’s association of attorneys — for several years, and served on the state Nominating Committee for two consecutive years.  Dan also served two full terms (eight years) as the Chair of the Judicial Performance Commission for the 11th Judicial District — the group that provides non-partisan, impartial, public evaluations for all district and county judges in the district.  In 2004, Dan was named the “Young Lawyer of the Year” for the State of Colorado by the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, the first instance where this prestigious award had ever gone to a rural attorney in the history of the award.  Dan is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in Politics, as well as Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders.

 

Dan is a graduate of the Washington College of Law at the American University in Washington, D.C., one of the nation’s top law schools.  At the Washington College of Law, Dan focused on civil litigation at all levels.  Prior to graduating law school in 1998, Dan graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1994.  While at OU, Dan was known as a leader throughout the 20,000+ student campus community and served in several different capacities in the student government there.

 

Dan is a solo practitioner at a law office in Cañon City, Colorado with a Fremont County-centered practice.  His law practice is primarily centered in three areas.  He works as a court-appointed guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children.  He also does a significant amount of personal injury litigation focused on holding insurance companies accountable to their insureds.  Finally, he has a significant governmental practice.  He is currently the Town Attorney for the Town of Williamsburg, as well as the attorney for the Cañon City Area Metropolitan Recreation and Park District and the Western Fremont Fire Protection District.  In the past, Dan has also done legal work for the Town of Rockvale, the Deer Mountain Fire Protection District, and the Fremont Sanitation District.

 

 

Dan is in his third term as the First Vice Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, following a term of service from 2003-2005 as Secretary of the State Party, one of the first non-metro individuals elected to serve as an officer for the Colorado Democrats in several years. 

 

In his capacity as First Vice Chair, Dan serves as a member of the Democratic National Committee, where he has been active with the Rural Coordinating Council and was a charter member of the DNC’s Youth Coordinating Council.  He is a member of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, where he served a term on the Executive Committee as the Vice Chair for the Western Region; he also serves on the ASDC’s Redistricting Committee. 

 

In 2000, Dan received the prestigious “Rising Star” award from the Colorado Democratic Party.  In 2002, Dan served as the Democratic nominee for the Colorado General Assembly in Senate District 2, a sprawling nine-county district larger than the State of Maryland.  Prior to running for office, Dan served as the Chair of the Fremont County Democratic Party.  Dan has served as a Delegate to the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Democratic National Conventions. 

 

Dan was an integral part of the efforts to bring the 2008 Democratic National Convention to Denver, Colorado.  He served as the Vice Chair of the Denver 2008 Host Committee during the bid process, and was a founding member of the Host Committee as one of the initial group of community leaders working to bring the vision of the Convention into a reality.  Dan continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the Host Committee.

 

Dan served as the state liaison to both the Pueblo 2004 State Convention and Assembly and the Greeley 2006 State Assembly.  He chaired the CDP’s 2006, 2008, and 2010 Site Selection Committees.  In 2008, he produced the State Democratic Assembly and Convention at the Colorado Springs World Arena, the third consecutive time he has produced the State Assembly / Convention.

 

In 2007, Dan was one of the first “superdelegates” nationally to endorse Barack Obama for President, and was the first Colorado superdelegate to do so.  He served as then-Senator Obama’s official representative for the delegate selection process in Colorado, and was the Obama delegation chair for Colorado, and was also Vice Chair for the full Colorado Delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008.