Secretary of State Gessler filed paperwork to run for governor on Thursday, two days after reimbursing the state nearly $1,300 for a political trip to Florida last year.

His political director, Rory McShane, said Gessler's decision to reimburse the money — which led to an ethics complaint against the Republican office-holder — has nothing do with his election plans…

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UPDATE #2: In a obviously closely related development, Stokols now reporting that Gessler has officially filed paperwork to run for governor in 2014.

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UPDATE: FOX 31's Eli Stokols:

“After many months of attempting to defend himself from this political attack, it became obvious that the Ethics Commission simply wasn’t going to give the Secretary a fair hearing,” Gessler’s spokesman, Andrew Cole, told FOX31 Denver.

“So he decided to pay the money back in an effort to move on from this episode and get back to work for the people of Colorado.”

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Big news today in the ongoing ethics and criminal investigation against Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler. A press release we received moments ago from Colorado Ethics Watch explains:

After nearly seven months of defending himself, and reportedly charging the state more than $60,000 in legal defense bills, Secretary of State Scott Gessler has reimbursed the State of Colorado $1278.90 for state money spent on a political trip to Florida in 2012.
 
Colorado Ethics Watch filed a complaint with the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission in October asking the IEC to investigate and determine whether Gessler misappropriated state funds for personal or political use when he was reimbursed for travel to a Republican election law training event and the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August.  In response to the complaint, the Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) investigated the transactions.  The Denver District Attorney also announced in November that he would launch a criminal investigation.
 
“We’re pleased that the Secretary finally did what he should have done months ago – repay the state for funds used to attend a Republican Party event,” said Luis Toro, director of Colorado Ethics Watch.  “This should send a message to all elected officials that public funds are not for personal or political use.”

It would appear that Gessler has given up the long and costly fight to defend his use of office discretionary funds on what has every appearance of partisan political purposes–the national conference of the National Republican Lawyers Association, and the immediately-following Republican National Convention last summer.

It's possible that conceding defeat and repaying these funds will help Gessler put this ethics and criminal investigation behind him ahead of a possible run for governor next year. We'll see what the IEC and Denver DA do with this, but another way to look at it is an admission of guilt after a lengthy and embarrassing public spectacle.

And that's not so good for one's political career either, folks.

Kopel is not a reputable source of information in the gun policy debate. [Pols emphasis] During a December 2012 appearance on CNN to discuss a high-profile shooting involving an NFL player, Kopel falsely claimed that there is no link between gun availability and homicide rates, even though that fact has been established by numerous studies. Kopel also exaggerated the level of violence in the United Kingdom, which has strict gun laws, compared to the United States, even though the United States far outpaces England — and all other high-income nations — in gun homicide and homicide rates generally.

A frequent contributor of feature stories to the NRA's magazine, America's 1st Freedom, Kopel promoted the conspiracy theory that the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty — a proposal to crack down on the supply of weapons to human rights abusers — could lead to the "total disarmament of freedom-loving people all over the world."

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THURSDAY UPDATE: The Poynter Institute has gotten wind of this story, and the involvement of Dave Kopel–who rather ironically has been visiting faculty at this nationally known journalism school.

Daniele Perazzi died in 2012. The “incident is devoid of any foundation and the news is completely fabricated,” the company said in a statement.

And the woman who contacted the station wasn’t an attorney, KDVR now says. But she wasn’t the only one flogging the story, KDVR reports: [Pols emphasis]

David Kopel, a nationally-recognized Second Amendment attorney with the Independence Institute in Denver, first told FOX31 Denver about the alleged incident Saturday. He referred us to Korrine Aguirre, who, it now appears, concocted an elaborate but false story.

Kopel has been visiting faculty at Poynter and recently spoke at a Poynter seminar on how to cover guns… [Pols emphasis]

We assume they will be asking Kopel to explain this incident in a future seminar.

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UPDATE: FOX 31 finally explains what happened here, and you'll never guess where they got it from:

David Kopel, a nationally-recognized Second Amendment attorney with the Independence Institute in Denver, [Pols emphasis] first told FOX31 Denver about the alleged incident Saturday. He referred us to Korrine Aguirre, who, it now appears, concocted an elaborate but false story…

Oh no, Dave Kopel! Better not put this one in your opening statement. And reporters, maybe keep this in mind next time you're inclined to take Kopel's word for something? He's not actually the reliable source he is widely credited to be, this just being the latest example.

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Last Saturday, reporter Hendrik Sybrandy of FOX 31 News dropped quite the bombshell:

An executive with a prominent gun manufacturer is on his way back to his native Italy after a taxi driver mistook him for a terrorist on Saturday.

Daniele Perazzi took a cab to the Colorado Gun Collectors Association trade show at the Denver Merchandise Mart around noon.

He had seven shotguns at the time and apparently the guns scared Perazzi’s cab driver who called police and told them he’d just dropped off a terrorist…

The story of the "arrest" of Daniele Perazzi, the president of the Italian firearms manufacturer Perazzi Shotguns, spread like wildfire across gun-rights friendly social media spaces, websites, and talk radio. The Independence Institute's Amy Oliver warned Twitter followers darkly:

There's just one little problem, as 9NEWS' Kyle Clark reported last night: none of it ever happened. 

The gun company, the Adams County Sheriff's Office, Taxis on Patrol and the Colorado Gun Collectors Association all claim the reported incident never happened.

The story has gone viral online and caused concern for gun rights supporters. 9NEWS has received numerous emails inquiring as to why the story isn't being broadly covered…

The Adams County Sheriff's Office, identified in the FOX31 report as the agency that "interrogated Perazzi," said they have no record of arresting, detaining or even contacting someone at the gun show. [Pols emphasis]

"We have no indication whatsoever that we were involved with this," Sgt. Paul Gregory said. "There is no indication that we arrested, detained or contacted anybody from Perazzi. The only knowledge that we had of this incident was from the FOX31 broadcast on Saturday."

Folks, not only was Daniele Perazzi not arrested on Saturday in Colorado, Daniele Perazzi wasn't even in the state of Colorado. In fact, Daniele Perazzi can't be found anywhere on this earth today, because according to a statement from the company, he died a year ago. 9NEWS tracked down the person who allegedly identified herself as Perazzi's "American attorney" to FOX 31, and she's, well, not an attorney. In short, it's all a hoax.

So yes, clearly FOX 31 has some explaining to do as to how this wholly fabricated story made it into their evening news. To us, though, this is just another example of countless falsehoods that have been uncritically spread by local media during the debate over gun safety in Colorado this year. As one example, 9NEWS' Kyle Clark, the same reporter laughing it up at FOX 31's expense today, himself was duped by the Independence Institute's Jon Caldara's absurd predictions that limiting magazine capacity would mean "guns in Colorado will never be able to get a magazine again." Clark's breathless prime-time report on that "possibility" looks silly in its own right now that the Attorney General's common-sense guidance on the new law is out, and Caldara's warning has been shown to be false–just as proponents of House Bill 1224 always said it would be.

The fact is, we don't know of any local media that should be proud of their gun debate coverage. From double standards for what they scrutinized to the subsidy of false claims about the bills, and even total paranoid BS fabricated out of whole cloth as you see above–they all dropped the ball. And the public interest was not served.

Tom Tancredo.

As the Denver Post's Kurtis Lee reported late last night:

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, known for his strong stances on immigration, said late Wednesday night he plans to formally announce a run for governor on a conservative talk radio show Thursday.

“This Dunlap thing is the last straw,” said Tancredo in a message.

As most of our readers know, former Rep. Tom Tancredo challenged Gov. John Hickenlooper in 2010, following the implosion of leading GOP contender Scott McInnis in a plagiarism scandal leaving the hopelessly unqualified Dan Maes as the Republican nominee. Tancredo temporarily affiliated with the minor American Constitution Party to mount his bid, as it was too late for him to run as a Republican.

Notwithstanding whatever boost a Tancredo campaign might get in the short run from Hickenlooper's controversial decision to grant a reprieve to convicted murderer Nathan Dunlap, the fact remains that Tancredo is a symbol of everything the modern GOP is trying to get away from. Tancredo's anti-immigrant obsession has made him a repellent figure among the fast-group bloc of voters in the United States, and his frequent extreme rhetorical outbursts make Tancredo a severe liability to his political allies every time he grabs a microphone.

Having said that, he did get lots of endorsements in 2010, and just over 36% of the vote in a three-way race.

Does Tancredo have the clout in Republican circles to forestall a widely-expected primary? Or will we see a drawn-out contest between Tancredo, Greg Brophy, Scott Gessler–and maybe others? We, and Gov. Hickenlooper, will be watching closely.

UPDATE: As announced on Peter Boyles' radio show this morning:

–Del the Funky Homosapien

Organizers who were seeking to recall Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, are suspending their petition-gathering efforts, according to an email obtained by Colorado Community Media on May 22.

Organizers told recall volunteers in the email that they are making a “strategic decision” to suspend their efforts to recall Hudak, so that they could focus on the ongoing recall efforts aimed at state Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs, and Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo, both of whom are Democrats.

The organizers said in the email that they intend to “restart” their petition-gathering efforts against Hudak after they are successful in their recall attempts against Morse and Giron.

However, the clock is ticking on that effort. Organizers only have until June 10 to submit more than 18,000 recall petition signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.

Over the past few weekends, the number of volunteers working the recall petition beat against Sen. Evie Hudak is said to have consistently dwindled, and it became apparent early on to organizers that they wouldn't come anywhere near the 18,000 signatures needed to successfully place her recall on the ballot. Hudak's signature requirement was the highest of any of the four Democrats who had recall petition attempts begin against them, and as soon as it was clear that opponents wouldn't be mounting paid signature drives against her, Hudak was safe.

With Rep. Mike McLachlan's recall drive having ended in failure yesterday, that leaves only Sens. Angela Giron of Pueblo and John Morse of Colorado Springs as possible legislators up for recall. The statement above about volunteers heading to Pueblo is worth noting, but the fact remains that Morse is the only recall most likely headed for the ballot at this point–and that, should it occur, only the result of a paid signature gathering effort.

Notwithstanding pay-to-play, folks, there's no sign in these developments any "sleeping giant" has "awakened."

The defendant was eligible for the death penalty under Colorado law. The district attorney believed the defendant deserved the death penalty. A jury of twelve citizens of Colorado determined that he deserved the death penalty. And a plethora of appellate courts have upheld the jury’s decision. But Governor Hickenlooper simply cannot cope with the task of carrying out the execution of Nathan Dunlap or exercising his constitutional mandate.

Executive authority to modify criminal punishment is part of our constitutional system, and I respect that. However, the citizens of Colorado deserve honesty and the victims deserve finality. I believe the governor’s decision does not stem from anything but his personal discomfort about the death penalty. I also believe that the governor should have been much more up front with the voters when he ran for office if he couldn’t carry out the death penalty.

I have an excellent working relationship with the governor and I respect him very much. Yet it’s been apparent to me that issues of crime and punishment are not his strength. John Hickenlooper is an optimist. He has proven to be uncomfortable confronting the perpetrators of evil in our society. I saw this when I discussed last year’s juvenile direct-file bill with him. He had trouble comprehending that a 16 or 17-year-old is capable of brutal acts deserves adult punishment. I saw it in his naïve views about the role of administrative segregation in our prisons. And I’ve heard it in my discussions with him about the death penalty. The governor is certainly entitled to these views, but granting a reprieve simply means that his successor will have to make the tough choice that he cannot.

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UPDATE #2: Press release announcing today's executive order after the jump.

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UPDATE: 9NEWS' Blair Schiff:

Under a reprieve, Dunlap could conceivably be executed some day. The reprieve will stay in place until Hickenlooper or another governor lifts it.

Arguably the most difficult decision of his political career, Hickenlooper's decision may earn him blowback as prosecutors are currently seeking the death penalty against James Holmes for the mass murder at an Aurora movie theater.

The death toll in the Dunlap case is not as high as the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, but it shares similarities. Dunlap was convicted in 1996 of killing four employees at a Denver-area Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in 1993. The jury sentenced him to die. His last guaranteed appeal was rejected this year. His execution was scheduled for August 2013.

FOX 31:

The reprieve can only be lifted with another executive order, and Hickenlooper said at a 2 p.m. news conference it’s highly unlikely he will revisit the issue again.  That means it would be up to his successor to decide to stay the execution or allow it to resume.

“This weighed on me heavily for a year,” Hickenlooper said in explaining his decision to reporters.  He spoke slowly and deliberately.

“I could not find the justice in making” a decision to allow Dunlap to die, he said.

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We'll update shortly with coverage and the full text of the statement–word breaking now that Gov. John Hickenlooper has granted a temporary reprieve to death-row inmate Nathan Dunlap,  citing questions about the application of the death penalty generally–while acknowledging the "horrific" nature of Dunlap's crime. 

Gov. Hickenlooper grants temporary reprieve of death sentence

Gov. John Hickenlooper signed an Executive Order today that grants Nathan J. Dunlap, also known as Offender No. 89148, a temporary reprieve from his death sentence.

The Colorado Constitution provides for one final review by the governor before the State executes another human being. This check is one that, from its Common Law origins, embeds in the governor the authority to grant a reprieve. Not taking action in this case was not an option.

“I have taken this responsibility seriously,” Hickenlooper says in the Executive Order. “As Governor, I must either direct state employees to execute a human being, or I must exercise my constitutional authority to stop an execution. Both paths require an affirmative decision by me, and the prospect of either decision has been daunting. It has forced me to think of the issue in a personal way because it is on my conscience the decision will weigh. I am confident that most Coloradans – no matter what their views on the death penalty may be – will respect and understand the unique burden of this decision.”

The governor met in recent weeks with prosecutors, clergy, victims and their families, law enforcement, defense attorneys, and countless other people to discuss this case and the death penalty. In granting the reprieve, the governor used the Executive Order to explain a number of issues, including:

Colorado’s imperfect capital punishment system 

“If the State of Colorado is going to undertake the responsibility of executing a human being, the system must operate flawlessly. Colorado’s system for capital punishment is not flawless. A recent study co-authored by several law professors showed that under Colorado’s capital sentencing system, death is not handed down fairly. Many defendants are eligible for capital punishment but almost none are actually sentenced to death. The inmates currently on death row have committed heinous crimes, but so have many others who are serving mandatory life sentences. … As one former Colorado judge said to us, ‘[The death penalty] is simply the result of happenstance, the district attorney’s choice, the jurisdiction in which the case is filed, perhaps the race or economic circumstance of the defendant.’ Indeed, ‘Death, in its finality, differs more from life imprisonment than a 100-year prison term differs from one of only a year or two,’ U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stewart, Powell, and Stevens wrote in a 1976 decision. Thus, they said, ‘there is a corresponding difference in the need for reliability.’”

Issues surrounding the statutorily required drugs for lethal injection 

“… as a result of the infrequent use and application of the death penalty in Colorado, the State is not immediately equipped to carry out a death sentence. Recent restrictions imposed by pharmaceutical companies and the Food and Drug Administration make procuring these drugs challenging. We must ensure that individuals facing the death penalty are afforded certain guaranteed rights of due process before a state proceeds with an execution.”

National and international trend toward abolition of the death penalty 

“Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois and New Mexico recently repealed the death penalty. There are now 18 states without the death penalty and 7 of the states with the death penalty (including Colorado) have not carried out an execution in at least 10 years. There has been a moratorium on executions in California for more than 6 years due to concerns regarding the constitutionality of their execution procedures. And the death penalty is effectively suspended in Oregon, where the governor has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty for the duration of his service as governor. Internationally, the United States is one of only a handful of developed countries that still uses the death penalty as a form of punishment. Approximately two-thirds of countries worldwide have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, largely due to concerns regarding human rights violations. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun said, ‘The death penalty experiment has failed.’”

“My decision to grant a reprieve to Offender No. 89148 is not out of compassion or sympathy for him or any other inmate sentenced to death,” Hickenlooper says in the Executive Order. “The crimes are horrendous and the pain and suffering inflicted are indescribable. I have enormous respect for the jurors who deliberated over Offender No. 89148’s case, the decision they rendered, and the amount of reflection they demonstrated in discharging their civic duty.”

The order says more than 15 years have passed since that jury convened, “and we now have the benefit of information that exposes an inequitable system.”

“It is a legitimate question whether we as a state should be taking lives,” the order says. “Because the question is about the use of the death penalty itself, and not about Offender No. 89148, I have opted to grant a reprieve and not clemency in this case.”

The Executive Order signed today will remain in effect until modified or rescinded by future Executive Order of the Governor. Offender No. 89148, meanwhile, will remain in administrative segregation.

We missed Dick.

Veteran GOP operative Dick Wadhams has signed on as general consultant for the leading candidate in one of the GOP’s top Senate pickup opportunities.

Former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds announced on Wednesday that he has retained Wadhams to help lead his campaign.

The election next year will come a decade after Wadhams’ last triumph in the state — managing now-Sen. John Thune’s 2004 upset of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

“Dick’s reputation as a battle tested strategist, coupled with his insight into South Dakota’s political landscape make him the perfect complement to our team,” Rounds said in a statement. “We’ve been considering individuals to fill this role for months and we continued to come back to Mr. Wadhams.”

It's been a rough few years for the formerly legendary Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams. Arguably Wadhams' greatest triumph as a campaign manager came in South Dakota, though, when he masterminded Sen. John Thune's 2004 victory. Wadhams gained his reputation after massaging former Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado, one of the least inspiring men to ever serve in the United States Senate, into two election wins over Democratic challenger Tom Strickland. Since 2004, however, Wadhams has presided over a string of defeats for Senate candidates in several states including Colorado continued losses for the GOP as Colorado party chairman, and the 2010 gubernatorial debacle that more or less broke the party's back here. Wadhams fell so far, so fast, that it's easy to forget that he was once near the pinnacle of his profession; Wadhams managed the 2006 re-election campaign of Sen. George Allen in Virginia, which was supposed to have been a formality along the way toward a run for President in 2008. But then "Macaca" happened.

Perhaps Gov. Mike Rounds will be Wadhams' ticket back to winner's circle. His résumé‎ hopes so.