Democratic attorney general candidate Michael Dougherty, the Boulder County district attorney, runs laps around the judicial complex in Denver that houses the office he’s seeking in a TV ad released Friday that includes a subtle dig at one of his primary opponents.

Dougherty, a veteran ultramarathoner — he covered 100 miles in under 24 hours in the high-altitude Leadville Trail 100 race a decade ago — races around the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center, blocks from the State Capitol, in the 30-second spot, demonstrating what the ad’s narrator describes as the candidate’s ability to “run circles around the field.”

Dougherty and three other Democrats are running in the June 30 primary for the office held by term-limited Attorney General Phil Weiser — Secretary of State Jena Griswold, former top federal prosecutor Hetal Doshi, and workers’ rights attorney and nonprofit head David Seligman.

Republicans Michael Allen, the 4th Judicial District attorney, and Colorado Springs-based lawyer David Willson are seeking the GOP nomination.

Set to run on Denver broadcast stations and statewide on digital and streaming platforms on a six-figure buy, the ad features footage of Dougherty pounding the sidewalks around the marble complex, home to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and the state’s appellate courts.

The ad’s narrator says Dougherty is the “only candidate who’s prosecuted thousands of cases,” including the Boulder King Soopers shooting, last year’s deadly firebombing on the Pearl Street Mall, and the investigation tied to the 2021 Marshall Fire, which killed two and destroyed more than 1,000 homes.

The ad also mentions Dougherty’s statewide training program designed to teach Coloradans how to defend their constitutional rights, which the narrator says is “beating ICE and Donald Trump.”

In its closing seconds, the ad shifts tone and urges viewers to “Google ‘Jena Griswold exaggerating,'” as the typed phrase fills a search field on screen, prompting Dougherty to break his stride, grin and shrug.

It’s a reference to the controversy surrounding Griswold’s repeated claims that she’d “argued before the U.S. Supreme Court,” even though critics — like Dougherty, who raised the point earlier in the campaign — point out that although she was named as a party in a case decided by the high court, the state’s solicitor general and Weiser performed the legal work.

“Donald Trump has shown he will continue to test the limits of the law and our Constitution,” Dougherty said in a statement that accompanied information about the ad’s release.

“Colorado needs an attorney general who knows how to build cases, win in court, and protect our communities. I have spent my career taking on difficult cases and powerful interests, and I will be ready on day one to fight for Colorado and win,” Dougherty added.

“It’s not a complicated thing,” Scott Robinson, legal analyst for Colorado Politics news partner 9News, told anchor Kyle Clark in March. “When a lawyer presents an argument in person to the United States Supreme Court, they have argued before or argued at the Supreme Court. Anything else, it’s not arguing to the court.”

In a statement to 9News, Griswold responded, in part, “The word ‘argue’ does not exclusively mean oral argument.”

Said Robinson: “To a lawyer, the terms are entirely crystal clear. Perhaps not to the general public.”

The case involved efforts by a group of Republican and unaffiliated voters to disqualify Donald Trump from appearing on Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot on constitutional grounds, arguing that the 14th Amendment prohibited him from running for federal office because the then-former president had incited an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed rulings by Colorado courts that had sided with the plaintiffs, permitting Trump to appear on the state ballot on his way to winning a second term.

Ann Frick, a retired state district court judge, said in an opinion column in Westword that Griswold’s statements were “particularly troubling,” especially considering that Griswold lacks the extensive courtroom experience her three primary opponents have.

“This is not a matter of ‘nuanced lawyer speak,'” Frick wrote. “It’s not an innocent ‘I misspoke.’ This is a strategy to mislead voters about her qualifications to be the state’s top lawyer.”

A campaign spokesman for Griswold didn’t respond to a request for comment about Dougherty’s ad.

Primary ballots started going out this week to Colorado’s Democratic, Republican and unaffiliated voters.

While Democrats and Republicans get their party’s ballots, those who aren’t registered with a political party get both major party’s ballots and can fill out one of them. They’re due back to the county clerks by 7 p.m. June 30.