From the Rocky Mountain News:
Secretary of State Mike Coffman’s office says a worker who sold election information on the side appears to have violated personnel rules. The employee did not access state data for his business, a spokesman for Coffman said.
Coffman has moved Dan Kopelman, his $85,000-a-year elections technology manager, out of the elections division…
…Coffman also asked the state auditor to conduct an audit. His request to Auditor Sally Symanski Tuesday afternoon came several hours after a group called Colorado Citizens for Ethics requested an audit…
…Kopelman owns and operates PoliticalLiveWires.com, a right- leaning campaign consulting business that advertises the sale of updated voter information and touts past efforts in setting up mostly GOP Web sites.
The investigation began Thursday, when an Internet blogger asked Coffman about the appropriateness of Kopelman’s side job. Coffman ordered that -PoliticalLiveWires.com be shut down, which it was, Tee said.
“Mr. Kopelman appears to have violated two rules of the state personnel rules,” Tee said.
“He engaged in outside employment without gaining permission from his state employer, and he conducted activities incompati- ble with his state employment, namely hosting a partisan Web site which solicited the sale of targeted voter files, while working in the Elections Division of the Department of State.”…
…Coffman and Kopelman are Republicans and longtime political allies, fueling speculation on blogs and in e-mails about Coffman’s knowledge of Kopelman’s business.
Pat Waak, the Colorado Democratic Party chairwoman, on Tuesday told Coffman in a letter that the appointment of Kopelman to an elections post “brought a definite and unacceptable partisan stain to your office.”
She said Kopelman should resign or be fired.
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…well, ok, that was a little bitchy.
Coffman’s integrity isn’t in question. An employee wasn’t thinking.
What else is new?
As for Pat Wacko, well, she has to get in her partisan digs.
audit etc. is completed before making any comments. But to pass it off merely as an employee who was not thinking is perhaps a bit naive.
Like she is this time. This Koppelman dude has made some pretty heinous “errors of judgement”. Moving him to another department helps nothing. He really should be fired.
…I’m simply questioning whether she’s an effective messenger. I’ve never been favorably impressed with her, frankly. sigh
Agreeing with Pat Waak. Ugh.
At least you didn’t gather the story from the Post where Dan is now Mike Koppleman. Anyway, I hope that Coffman decides not to take employment suggestions from Pat Wacko.
Was Lynn B. that desparate for comments now that the session is out?
– Violated his employment agreement by moonlighting secretly
– Violated his employment agreement by conducting “incompatible activities”
– Caused a state audit of the SoS’ office
– (Took SoS’ voter data without paying for it or going through the standard paperwork process–you know he did.)
And for this, he gets a sideways promotion.
Ken Gordon would have shown this hack the door.
The guy should be fired. You can’t collect the SOS Voter File data during the day and then have a side business that sells that same data strickly one political party at night. Now, that’s a huge conflict of interest.
It’s kind of interesting that Coffman called for an audit hours after Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government called for one. Guess he’s really tryig to spin his way out of this one…
All of this assumes that the Secretary of State’s office has current and reliable information, which it don’t, and that it’s organized well enough to be useful, which it isn’t. And this doesn’t matter next to the fact that Waak and friends are ultimately trying to cast aspersions on Coffman’s integrity. Gee, I bet they even have someone lined up to step in for Coffman…
Mike Coffman has a reputation for being above board, well meaning honest politician. Not many Republicans now have that type of reputation. He should fire the crook immediately and make a pledge that he will not have any more political hires. Political hires don’t work, they waste taxpayor money and are often oxymorons as they are for efficient government and then they themselves waste our money. Jeffco’s old treasurers office was a great example.
I agree. Dan was a political hire in a non-partisan job. And his resume isn’t worth the 80k salary.