Duane Woodard

L. Duane Woodard was born in Kansas City, Missouri on January 12, 1938. A military brat, he was raised in Greeley, Colorado, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Casper, Wyoming. Woodard joined the United States Marine Corps serving in Japan and the Philippines. He was honorably discharged in 1959. He then attended the University of Wyoming and the University of Oklahoma College of Law. After his studies, he took a position at the Sinclair Oil Corporation. Two years later, he moved to Fort Collins to become a Deputy District Attorney for the Eighth Judicial District.[2] In 1974, he became a municipal judge in Windsor.[3]

He was elected to the Colorado Senate in the 1976 general election. In March 1980, Governor Richard Lamm appointed Woodard to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. Fellow Republican Roy Henry Shore succeeded Woodard in the Senate for a brief time before his own appointment to the University of Colorado Board of Regents.[3][4] In 1982, Woodard defeated Democratic candidate Gail Klapper.[5] In 1987, Woodard switched from the Republican Party to Democratic Party citing the party's advocacy for austerity and personal conflicts with its members.[6] In the 1988 general election, Woodard headed Colorado Unity, one of two groups organized to oppose an English-only amendment to the Colorado Constitution.[7] Republican candidate Gale Norton defeated Woodard in the 1990 general election.[6] While Attorney General, he chaired the National Association of Attorneys General's Environmental Control Committee.[8]

Woodard later served as General Counsel to his predecessor in the State Senate, Republican U.S. Senator Hank Brown.[9]