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September 28, 2011 08:55 PM UTC

As Sec. of State, Coffman promised not to donate to partisan candidates, then he essentially did so

  • 25 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

( – promoted by ProgressiveCowgirl)

With the partisan glow emanating ever more brightly from Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, it’s worth taking a moment to think back on another SOS conflict-of-interest brouhaha that spilled out of the Secretary of State’s office in Colorado in recent years.

The local media hasn’t done much of this, so I’ll fill in the journalistic gap a bit here.

You may recall that a few months after Mike Coffman became Secretary of State in 2007, it was revealed that one of his new hires, Dan Kopelman, was running a partisan consulting business on the side. Kopelman was accused of selling SOS voter lists to Republican candidates.

Kopelman was promoting his business on his website by highlighting his day job at the Secretary of State’s office.

Coffman admitted at the time that hiring GOP election consultant Kopelman to help oversee elections was a mistake, because of the appearance of conflict of interest, but he said he did not know Kopelman continued running the side business, illegal under state law, after he was hired. Kopelman was demoted and re-assigned. (Later, Colorado Ethics Watch filed a complaint against Coffman before the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission, alleging that he knew about Kopelman’s moonlighting biz. This was dismissed.)

Against the backdrop of secretary-of-state fiascos in Florida and Ohio, Coffman was quoted at the time as saying the Kopelman incident represented a “failure of leadership” on his own part. This is an expression of contrition that we haven’t yet heard from Gessler, even though Gessler has been acting as if conflict of interest is to be expected from the SOS, and he articulated this categorically when he told the Greeley Tribune in March that he hopes to use the SOS office to “further the conservative viewpoint.”

A couple weeks after Kopelman was accused of selling voter data (an allegation that was never proven), Coffman instituted personnel rules banning SOS staffers who worked on election matters from engaging in partisan political activities, including attending caucuses or conventions.

Coffman also told The Denver Post that he, personally, would not endorse or contribute to candidates or initiatives.

A BigMedia review of Coffman’s subsequent political donations from June 2007 to November 2008 shows that he did not contribute to candidates during his SOS service, but his wife did, and he, his wife, and his political groups gave a total of $2,625 to GOP political entities, according to state and federal databases.

This includes $300 that his wife, Cynthia Coffman, gave directly to “Bob Schaffer for US Senate,” about month after her husband promised to stop donating to partisan candidates.

It also includes $1,629 given to GOP groups by Coffman himself, including $420 Coffman gave to the Jefferson County Republican Central Committee, $350 to the Arapahoe County Republican Party, and $300 he gave to the Douglas County Republican Central Committee.

Coffman had to have known that groups like these collect money and, in turn, give much of it directly to candidates.

The rest of the $2,625 was donated to Republican groups by Cynthia Coffman ($312 to GOP groups plus the $300 for Schaffer) or by Coffman for Congress ($384).

Coffman gave an additional $2,216 to his own congressional campaign in 2008, which you’d have to count as a violation of his promise not to give to partisan candidates, unless he doesn’t count himself as partisan.

Apparently Coffman kept his promise about not making partisan candidate endorsements, though his office would not return my calls to confirm this or, for that matter, to comment for this post at all.

Gessler, on the other hand, has yet to donate to GOP candidates or groups, but he has taken endorsements to a new height, the presidential level, having thrown his weight behind Mitt Romney.

Colorado’s last Secretary of State, Bernie Buescher, endorsed Cary Kennedy for Treasurer, and some other Colorado candidates.

Gigi Dennis, CO Secretary of State before Coffman, endorsed Bob Beauprez in 2006 and possibly others, she told me, adding, “I was always very careful about any endorsements, and I did not put my name on fundraising letters and invitations, that sort of thing.”

I didn’t ask her what she thought of Gessler’s dunk tank fundraiser.

“Secretary Gessler has an important role as the state’s chief elections officer,”  Jenny Flanagan, Executive Director of Common Cause, emailed me. “For voters to have confidence in our elections, they need to believe that the Secretary’s decisions are in the best interest of the state and not for the benefit of a particular candidate or political party.  To hold the public’s trust, the Secretary should refrain from partisan activities, whether it is endorsing candidates or fundraising for political parties.”

Some people thought Coffman’s post-Kopelman reforms didn’t go far enough, or were developed for self-serving reasons and ignored as Coffman ran for Congress, but a Denver Post editorial at the time praised them and suggested that they be retained after Coffman is gone.

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25 thoughts on “As Sec. of State, Coffman promised not to donate to partisan candidates, then he essentially did so”

      1. There are two FPEs and a lot more than two people in the audience. The blog has to grow its traffic and sell ads to continue providing a place for us all to play. FPEs should receive feedback on the level of interest generated by the appearance of various types of posts on the front page.

        They should also feel perfectly well empowered to spend their six months ignoring that feedback and developing the front page policies they want, since that’s the whole point of having elected FPEs instead of a set of guidelines for what’s front-paged and what isn’t and a few fixed volunteer moderators who only enforce the existing promotion policy. But feedback is good and it brought up an interesting question that I hope Jason will answer (below).

        But I do agree with you that it seems this sort of inquiry is becoming more common here and does seem a bit contrary to the role of FPE. I hope that the next set won’t have to deal with quite as much of it, since they’ll have an election year and plenty of things that are pretty clear decisions.

        1. I measured the level of interest by the number of comments my diaries generated. But I also took it in stride – it was more of a recognition of my contributions from fellow polsters, not a job where I was expected to do my best to generate interest and page hits. It certainly was never described as being that kind of position that I’ve ever seen.

          Anyway, you’re the FPE and it’s entirely your prerogative how to handle these things. If you two have buried the hatchet, I’m glad of that. I don’t like it when people I mutually admire go at it like you and Ralphie were doing.

          1. Sometimes he’s critical and for a while I was poking him back, but I’m done with that. I genuinely like the guy and always have, but these days I find myself respecting him too much to intentionally annoy him. I assume that my existence and general actions as FPE still annoy him, but I’m not going to do it on purpose anymore, and I respect his opinions and critiques. Although I don’t think FPEs are obliged to contribute to the site’s growth/sustainability, I hope that my actions here will in some small way help to do so, as I have become rather addicted and don’t like the idea of Pols ever disappearing.

    2. Along with the historical information on Secretaries of State and their leanings on whether or not to endorse partisan candidates.

      On second reading the wording is ambiguous and it may be a quote from a 2006 interview.

      Jason, did you want to weigh in and clarify that, if you’re reading?

      Gigi Dennis, CO Secretary of State before Coffman, endorsed Bob Beauprez in 2006 and possibly others, she told me, adding, “I was always very careful about any endorsements, and I did not put my name on fundraising letters and invitations, that sort of thing.”

      That reads to me like a current quote from a Republican former Secretary of State not directly condemning Gessler but also making clear that she would not have made the decision he did about the now-infamous “dunk tank” fundraiser. I think that’s fairly intriguing, buried though it is at the bottom  of the post(perhaps out of respect–it would be rude of an interviewer to make this quote into salacious headline material when clearly she intended no such thing).

      This is an interview FOLLOWING the fuss over Gessler’s planned dunk tank appearance, right, Jason? If not it’s still interesting but not very newsy.

      1. Secretaries of State handled political endorsements, seeing as how Gessler had just endorsed Romney.

        I started researching the post and found that Coffman looked like the only recent SOS, going back to Dennis, who hadn’t endorsed anyone. Yes, I interviewed Dennis to find out about her endorsements.

        And I found newspaper articles saying Coffman promised NOT to endorse.

        The articles said he promised NOT to contribute to partisan candidates. And it turned out that he, in fact, had contributed to GOP groups that likely give to candidates, and his wife contributed directly to Schaffer.

        Overall, given Gessler’s behavior, the topic of how past secretaries of state handled conflict-of-interest problems is relevant.

        I’m sorry my piece rambles, and there’s more to be written, but still I think this is good information to post now, with Gessler raising the eyebrow farther up the forehead each day.

        Of course, Coffman had another problem when the firm managing his congressional campaign in 2008 was found to have a client whose voting machines were under review by Coffman’s office. I didn’t get into that.

        1. Unless things have changed a great deal around here since I last checked, you are doing these diaries as a public service and a fine job of it you do. When we start paying you we can start critiquing the occasional ramble.

          (Were it mine to (re)write, though, I’d have  put the quote from Gigi Dennis in para 2-3.)

          1. Also, the info about his donations, I don’t think it was reported previously, so it probably should have been moved up.  I think it’s news, however small, but worthy of a blog post.

        1. Coffman did serve our country and I respect him for that. Not really sure what that has to do with him reneging on his anti-partisanship pledge. Good soldiers can still make bad politicians.  

  3. This will have no more effect on Coffman’s next election than it had on the last one, nor will the public be delving into this and making comparisons with Gessler. It’s informative of Coffman’s hypocrisy but he’s an R so big surprise, and of Gessler being worse but then he’s worse than most anybody. It’s too inside baseball to be of much political use, though.  

    1. Coffman promised not to donate to partisan candidates. He didn’t, he gave to some county parties. What Salzman didn’t look into is whether these donations were for tables at events or dinners, which a statewide candidate surely can’t be faulted for purchasing, as it’s a price of running for office. (I have no idea if the donations were as I’m suggesting, but it’s a part of the story that’s missing, and a reasonable explanation for the donations.)

      Also, seriously, you’re criticizing Coffman’s wife for giving money to Coffman’s own congressional campaign?

      Jason should also cross-check the dates when he says Coffman’s wife gave money to Schaffer’s campaign right after Coffman made the pledge. I don’t think they were even married at that time.

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