Michael “Mike” McLachlan, a veteran, former state representative and Durango resident, died Wednesday after a long illness.
McLachlan, 75, had a storied career as a lawyer and politician, representing Colorado before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 and 78,000 people in La Plata and other Southwest Colorado counties in the Colorado House of Representatives from 2013 to 2015. He was the husband of the district’s current representative, Barbara McLachlan, and the father of Kate and Brian McLachlan.
Flags lowered to half-staff around Colorado on Thursday to honor McLachlan’s service.
“Mike was the smartest, funniest, kindest and most loving person I will ever know,” said Barbara McLachlan in a news release Thursday. “He spent his life serving, helping and advocating, and has been a true role model for me, our family and our community. I will miss him dearly.”
Michael McLachlan, born in 1946, earned his bachelor’s degree from Southern Colorado State University and his law degree from the University of Arizona.
His life was marked by service to the community. In 1965, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the Vietnam War before being honorably discharged in 1967.
Kate McLachlan said the most important lesson her dad taught her “was the value of friendships.”
“He made everyone he met feel special and interesting, which made him special and interesting,” Kate McLachlan said. “I hope to carry on his legacy of connecting with others.”
In 1999, former Attorney General Ken Salazar appointed McLachlan as the state’s solicitor general. In that role, McLachlan shaped the nation’s laws regarding protections for people visiting abortion clinics.
Since the 1990s, Colorado has had a buffer law, which imposes an 8-foot “bubble” around medical workers and patients who step within 100 feet of a clinic entrance. McLachlan successfully defended the law before the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2000 case Hill vs. Colorado.
In 2012, he unseated former state Rep. J. Paul Brown and served as representative for House District 59.
“Mike was a great friend, a dedicated public servant and a man of immeasurable talent who served his country as a Vietnam Veteran, as Colorado’s solicitor general and as a state representative,” said state House Speaker Alec Garnett. “He stood up for his community and his fellow Coloradans at every turn, going as far as the Supreme Court of the United States to speak up for what he knew was right.”
During his term, McLachlan served on multiple committees, including the agriculture, judiciary and interim wildfire review committees.
He sponsored 22 bills in 2013 and 2014, 20 of which were signed into law, and survived a 2013 recall attempt by gun-rights advocates who opposed his stance on gun safety legislation.
One successful bill was a widely supported bill that allows farmers and ranchers to get a state tax credit of up to $5,000 for food they donate to hunger-relief organizations. Another bill allowed charter schools to hire armed security guards amid battles over gun control in Colorado.
In 2014, Brown unseated McLachlan after a contentious race that attracted more than $1 million in campaign donations, including hundreds of thousands of dollars from established political interests in Colorado.
Brown’s margin of victory – just 168 votes out of the 34,380 total votes cast districtwide – was narrow. McLachlan took two weeks to concede the state House race. After leaving the state Legislature, McLachlan returned to his private law practice.
Barbara McLachlan then defeated Brown in the 2016 election and has held the House District 59 seat since then.
“My condolences to Barbara and the family. I’m so sorry for their loss,” Brown said. “Mike was a formidable opponent. He campaigned hard; I campaigned hard. He won one, and I won one. I’m just so sorry for his loss.”
McLachlan was also a former president of the Durango Rotary Club and served on the Southern Ute Tribe-State of Colorado Environmental Control Commission.
Previously, he had also served as the chairman of the Judicial Performance Commission for the 6th Judicial District and as the chairman of the Supreme Court Grievance Committee.
“Mike McLachlan was a public servant,” said Gov. Jared Polis in a news release Thursday. “Mike always stood up for what was right, even if that was the hard thing to do. His military service, professional work and extensive commitment to volunteer service in his Southwest Colorado community made our state better, and he will be dearly missed. My heart goes out to Barbara, his children Brian and Kate, and his entire family.”
A celebration of life, planned by McLachlan himself, will be held at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Powerhouse Science Center in Durango.
smullane@durangoherald.com
