Related Ethics Headlines

Merida quits paid job with Romanoff campaign

dstaggs — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:14:33 -0400

Denver Public Schools board member Andrea Merida said this week that she would resign from a paid position on the Andrew Romanoff campaign and called for the board to start disclosing all political connections.

Merida had been paid $5,000 by the Romanoff campaign for organizing and field work. She said in her apology and resignation that she always separated the campaign from her school board work and that the Romanoff campaign never tried to influence or instruct her actions.

Ohms' finance oversight nets fine

dstaggs — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:08:03 -0400

Al Ohms, a Democratic candidate for Larimer County sheriff, has been fined $50 per day by the Colorado secretary of state for a seven-day stretch when he failed to file his campaign finance reports.

Ohms said Wednesday he didn't file by the July 20 deadline because of his own oversight.

Ballot measures' sponsors appeal order to divulge financial backers

ltoro — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:48:44 -0400

The sponsors of three controversial measures that opponents say could cripple Colorado’s economy have appealed a judge’s order that they disclose who contributed money and services to get the issues on the ballot.

In a filing with the state Court of Appeals, the sponsors allege that the administrative law judge who presided over the case, as well as the individuals who made the original complaint, engaged in “flagrant misconduct.”

Five Charged After CALL7 Investigation

dstaggs — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:34:44 -0400

ADAMS COUNTY -- Two Adams County employees and three employees of a county contractor were charged with theft, forgery and attempting to influence public servants after a CALL7 Investigation uncovered millions in no-bid county contracts to a company that apparently did work on the public officials’ homes.

The series of stories, aired in 2008, grabbed the attention of the Adams County District Attorney's office which launched its own investigation.

Merida resigns from Romanoff campaign, apologizes

ltoro — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:24:41 -0400

Denver School Board member Andrea Merida, who had been paid $5,000 from the Andrew Romanoff Senate campaign during ongoing bitter board fights, said she resigned from the campaign and apologized for any harm done.

Timnath manager target of contracting probe

ltoro — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:51:58 -0400

An outside investigator will probe Timnath's contract bidding process, especially concerning the role of Town Administrator Rebecca Davidson and her company, IB Engineering Corp.

The Timnath Town Board met in a special session Friday to ask the Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency — CIRSA — to examine the work done by Davidson and IB Engineering. All town employees have been instructed by the board to cooperate with the investigation.

McInnis' voting record reflects corporate, individual contributors

ltoro — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:20:06 -0400

For more than two decades as a state legislator and then a congressman, Scott McInnis collected millions of dollars in campaign contributions from corporations and businesses and voted in their interests the majority of the time.

"What I've found out is that generally, the people who don't agree with me don't support me. The inverse is true as well. People who do agree with me do support me," the GOP gubernatorial candidate said when presented with an analysis of his contributions and voting record.

10 states add campaign-finance laws

ltoro — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:01:10 -0400

Ten states have swiftly passed new laws requiring additional disclosure of political spending, following a Supreme Court ruling that lets corporations and unions pump unlimited amounts of money into certain campaign commercials.

The push in states comes as a high-profile effort in Congress to blunt the court's January ruling has stalled in the

DPS board member Merida on Romanoff campaign's payroll

ltoro — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:58:18 -0400

Andrew Romanoff's Democratic Senate campaign has been paying Denver school board member Andrea Merida thousands of dollars in consulting fees while she has attacked the former administration of Sen. Michael Bennet in board meetings and other forums.

McInnis says he paid taxes on entire ill-gotten $300,000

ltoro — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:36:40 -0400

One-time Republican frontrunner for governor Scott McInnis told the Colorado Independent he paid taxes on the entire $300,000 he was paid by Hasan Family Foundation to produce a handful of articles that, as has been widely reported, McInnis didn’t write but mostly lifted from papers written years ago by Gregory Hobbs, now a Colorado Supreme Court Justice.

Did McInnis Avoid Taxes on $112,500 of Hasan Water Money?

ltoro — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:18:16 -0400

Here's a nagging detail about Scott McInnis' Hasan fellowship that's slipped through the cracks in the media.

Why did McInnis run $112,500 of his $300,000 payment from the Hasan Family Foundation through a company called "Scott McInnis Invest 2 LLC," which lists Lori McInnis, Scott's wife, as the registered agent?

Garfield sheriff: Staff donations OK

dstaggs — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:12:12 -0400

A man challenging Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario in the Republican primary is questioning Vallario’s goal of getting 100 employees to contribute $100 apiece to his campaign.

Doug Winters says he has no problem with employees supporting an incumbent sheriff, but he thinks Vallario’s request puts them in an uncomfortable and unfair situation.

Colorado political group Western Tradition linked to nasty Montana race

dstaggs — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:16:28 -0400

Debra Bonogofsky, a moderate Republican small businesswoman from Billings, Mont., thought she was a “normal person” until she ran for the Montana State Legislature in June. Then she found out through 11th-hour attack ads, fliers and mailings that she was an anti-gun, pro-abortion, union-backing Barack Obama supporter.

That “smear campaign,” orchestrated by shadowy, right-wing political groups with Colorado ties, doomed her in conservative Montana and led to her 249-vote defeat in the June 8 primary to Republican Dan Kennedy.

Election panel in limbo

dstaggs — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:55:22 -0400

LONGMONT — Election Committee members found themselves in a rather awkward position Monday night.

They have to move forward under the city’s existing campaign finance laws, knowing that those laws may change — and the committee itself may be disbanded — in a month.

Garfield County Sheriff Vallario's campaign solicitation of employes questioned

dstaggs — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:45:45 -0400

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — The challenger for the Republican nomination to run for Garfield County Sheriff is calling into question a solicitation by incumbent Sheriff Lou Vallario seeking campaign contributions from sheriff's office employees.

“I am funding a lot of this campaign on my own, and it's not something I try to push on people,” Republican challenger Doug Winters of Rifle said during a 21⁄2-hour interview alongside Vallario on radio station KMTS Monday afternoon.

Will McInnis Plagiarism Be A Colo. Disciplinary Test Case?

ltoro — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:12:01 -0400

Last week’s plagiarism scandal might have sounded the death knell for Scott McInnis’ gubernatorial aspirations, but what effect will it have on the Hogan Lovells partner’s legal career?

Colorado has yet to see a published disciplinary opinion on attorney plagiarism, said Alec Rothrock, a legal ethics expert with Burns Figa & Will. But public censure seems to be the going sanction for the offense in states with rules identical to our own.

Hasan Foundation to McInnis: Check please

dstaggs — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:34:50 -0400

The foundation that paid Scott McInnis $300,000 for a fellowship that included the plagiarized "Musings on Water" articles this morning demanded he repay "all monies paid to him."

The Hasan Family Foundation today sent out a press release, saying their board found "the work Congressman Scott McInnis performed under the Senior Fellowship was only a fraction of the work he was obligated to perform.

A ‘nonissue' for McInnis? Depends on who you ask

dstaggs — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:16:12 -0400

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — Amid mounting calls from his critics for Scott McInnis to abandon the governor's race in light of plagiarism charges against him, local political leaders see the matter differently.

One longtime local Republican, Don Vanderhoof, maintained that “I don't know much about it, except what I've read in the newspapers,” and suggested that newspaper reports fueling the controversy might be part of a dirty tricks campaign.

McInnis Scandal Blows Up

dstaggs — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:09:19 -0400

Things couldn’t look worse for Scott McInnis’ campaign for governor. Few headlines are breaking his way. Perhaps the most damaging have been inspired by statements from Rolly Fischer, the 82-year-old researcher who is adamant his work was plagiarized by the former congressman.

Asked by 7News if McInnis is lying about Fischer’s participation in the scandal, Fischer says “yes:” He was under the impression that his research on water, which included previously

Colorado Republicans scrambling for options

dstaggs — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:57:14 -0400

Leading Colorado Republicans on Wednesday began maneuvering for the possibility of Scott McInnis dropping out of the governor's race.

McInnis, who continued to explain the plagiarism in his written series on water, said through his spokesman that he was staying in.