Victor Mitchell

Victor Mitchell (born December 12, 1965) is a former legislator in the U.S. state of Colorado. Elected to the Colorado House of Representatives as a Republican in 2006, Mitchell represented House District 45, including Teller County and southern Douglas County, Colorado. Mitchell served one term in office and did not stand for re-election in 2008.

Born in Edison, New Jersey, Mitchell attended San Diego State University, earning a bachelor's degree in finance in 1988. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Business College of San Diego State University.

In 1987, while in college, he started a transportation business, and, over the course of his career, founded and served as CEO and chairman of five companies: Advantage Advisory Service (1989–2004), Advantage Cellular (1991–1995), Advantage Wireless (1996–2004), Motion Telecom, (2002–2004), and Ricochet Networks (2003–2004). After selling Advantage Cellular to AirTouch (later part of Verizon) in 1995, Mitchell moved to Denver, Colorado in 1996 and founded Advantage Wireless, a wireless distributor. After expanding to 114 branded locations, Advantage Wireless was sold to private investors in 2004. Advantage Wireless, Inc. was named "Colorado Small Business of the Year" by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce in 2000. Mitchell has also served on the boards of the Denver Metro Chamber and the Denver Better Business Bureau.

In 2003, Mitchell acquired control of Ricochet Networks, a data service provider that had suffered multiple bankruptcies. The follow year, after turning its first annual profit under Mitchell's leadership, Ricochet was acquired by Young Design, Inc. Mitchell was named by the Denver Business Journal as one of their "top 40 under 40" for business executives of Colorado, and was a finalist for Ernst and Young’s "Entrepreneur of the Year" recognition. Mitchell also returned to school to earn a Master of Public Administration degree in 2005 from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Currently a resident of Castle Rock, Colorado, Mitchell is married; he and his wife, Amy, have three children: Lauren, David, and Emily. He has been a member of the Castle Rock Rotary Club, the Kiwanis Club of Castle Pines North, the Douglas County Senior Foundation, and the local nonprofit Ready to Work Strive, as well as Saint Thomas More Catholic Church and the Colorado Commission on Higher Education Advisory Committee. With his wife, Mitchell helped launch the Douglas County arm of Project Lifesaver, a project that provides tracking devices to Alzheimer's patients and others with a propensity for wandering. Mitchell is also an avid tennis player.

Politically, Mitchell chaired the Douglas County arm of the political committee opposing Colorado's 2005 Referendum C, and was a director of the Colorado Leadership Program of the Rockies. In 2000, he attended the Capitol Conference in Washington D.C. on behalf of U.S. Senator Wayne Allard.

2006 election

In 2006, Mitchell faced Democrat Linda Constantine in the overwhelmingly Republican district. Mitchell campaigned on his opposition to Referendum C, and on his support for education reform, including support for charter schools.

2007 legislative session

During the 2007 legislative session, Mitchell served on the House Education Committee, the House Finance Committee, and the Legislative Audit Committee. Mitchell expressed his frustration with the pace of educational reform as a minority member of the Education Committee, blaming the lack of substantial reform on teachers' unions.

Building upon his work with Project Lifesaver, Mitchell sponsored successful legislation to encourage the project's expansion, including $380,000 in grants to counties to provide tracking bracelets for cognitively impaired people and coordination with law enforcement agencies.

2008 presidential election

In 2007, as a state legislator, Mitchell was named a member of the Colorado Legislative Leadership Team for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Shortly before Super Tuesday in February, he was announced as a Douglas County chair for Romney's campaign. After Romney dropped out of the presidential race a few days later, Mitchell offered support for Arizona Sen. John McCain.

2008 legislative session

In the 2008 session of the Colorado General Assembly, Mitchell sat on the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee and the Legislative Audit Committee.

After joining with moderate Republicans to criticize an executive order issued by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter allowing collective bargaining for state workers, Mitchell unsuccessfully attempted to amend a Republican proposal for punishing striking public employees to moderate fines; both his amendment and the Republican version of the proposal failed in committee. Mitchell criticized the Democratic version of the bill for not having sufficiently high penalties for striking state employees.

Mitchell has also proposed legislation to require students to pass a high school proficiency exam before graduating, and to enhance the ability of the state to inspect public school buildings by giving the Division of Oil and Public Safety the power to delegate building inspections to other parties, a measure which passed the state house.

Retiring from legislature

Mitchell became CEO and chairman of ReLogic, an online real estate company, in November 2007. Citing business responsibilities and frustration with advancing legislation while a member of the minority party in the legislature, Mitchell announced in January 2008 that he did not intend to seek re-election to a second term. Republicans Mark Sievers and Carole Murray have both declared their candidacy for the open seat.