September 30, 2013 09:33 AM UTC

State GOP's biz relationship with State Chair's firm could raise internal ethics issues for GOP

• 8 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

(The knives coming out for Ryan Call – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Reporters covering a press conference last Monday featuring GOP activists from Pueblo should have mentioned, at least as an aside, that the activists said GOP Chair Ryan Call's own law firm was hired to do the GOP's legal-defense work related to the Pueblo recall election.

Speaking to reporters, Pueblo Freedom and Rights founder Victor Head, and Tim Knight of Pueblo’s Basic Freedom Defense Fund, said they weren't sure if the Colorado State GOP was paying their legal-defense bills for the recall campaign, but they told reporters that Call's firm was doing legal-defense work for the GOP's Pueblo recall campaign.

Reporter: Was some of that legal-defense money earmarked from Ryan Call's own law firm?

Knight (@1430): Yes. As a matter of fact, that bill we're discussing, if he did pay us, he's paying his own law firm and he gets his own billable hours.

Watch the press conference here:

Last week I reported the media omission that Sarah Arnold, former El Paso Republican Party Secretary, accused state GOP Chair Ryan Call of using his own law firm for all the legal business of the State Republican Party.

Unfortunately, Call didn't return my request for a comment, but the fact is that Call's firm, Hale Westfall, was doing a lot of the Republican Party's legal work before Call was elected chair.

Now that Call is in charge of the State Party, the continued use of Call's law firm could present internal ethics issues for the Republican Party, just as corporate officers can run into ethics problems for directing corporate work to their personal business enterprises. But there's no public ethics issue involved in the State GOP's ongoing business relationship with Hale Westfall.

Here's a partial transcript of last Monday's press conference featuring comments by Head and Knight:

Reporter @12:50: How much did the [State GOP] actually give you all, in terms of the legal fees, for the District Court case?

Knight: That question remains to be seen. There was a bill that someone else had offered to pay. We're not sure of this. We've been asking for weeks. It appears that the State GOP may have paid that bill in an attempt to buy into the recall, saying, 'We did help. We paid your legal bill.' But they know, and we know, that someone else had agreed to pay that legal bill.

Reporter: How much was it?

Knight: Just short of $40,000. That was not the whole legal bill but part of it.

Reporter: How much is unsettled right now?

Head: I reached out to the law firm this morning to ask what the standing of our bill was, and they can't tell us.

Knight: They had to get permission from people to tell us.

Head: So we're almost in the dark. There are lots of entities that have stepped forward know to help us to buy their way into our success. And it's welcomed, I guess. Our bills will get paid. But that is not what was promised. That is not what happened when we were about to close. When we were short. We have a legal challenge, and we don't have the money to pay it. The recalls are going to go down, unless someone comes forward and helps. A bunch of promises happened. Nothing came through. We did it with 10, 20 callers at a time.

Knight: Selling personal stuff to pay for it.

Head: So as of this moment, as of this morning, I have no idea. Our law firm will not give as an account of who was paid what.

Reporter: Was some of that legal-defense money earmarked from Ryan Call's own law firm?

Knight (@1430): Yes. As a matter of fact, that bill we're discussing, if he did pay us, he's paying his own law firm and he gets his own billable hours.