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March 13, 2006 09:00 AM UTC

Another Rogue Individual...It's an Epidemic!

  • 6 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

It seemse everybody wants to use the “rogue staffer/volunteer/random person” defense these days. The latest to blame an unknown random person for a serious screw-up is the Rick O’Donnell campaign. From the Rocky Mountain News:

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency violated federal campaign laws by allowing his name and title to appear on an invitation to a fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Rick O’Donnell, the chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party alleged Friday. Party leader Pat Waak filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, asking for an investigation into any laws that may have been broken in relation to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson’s appearance Thursday at a $300-a-plate fundraising lunch for O’Donnell in Denver.

“By exploiting Mr. Johnson’s role as EPA administrator, Mr. Johnson and the O’Donnell campaign have jeopardized what should be a distinct separation between public policy and partisan politicking,” Waak wrote.

O’Donnell is the lone Republican candidate running for the 7th Congressional District seat being vacated by Bob Beauprez. O’Donnell officially resigned Friday from his job as director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to campaign full-time.Officials from the O’Donnell campaign and the EPA have denied any wrongdoing in regard to Johnson’s visit. The federal Hatch Act allows presidential appointees to stump on their own time for their favorite candidates, but it prohibits them from listing their titles on the invitations.

The subject line of an invitation e-mailed last week on behalf of former state health department Director Doug Benevento invited potential donors to a “Fundraiser with Administrator of EPA Stephen L. Johnson for Rick O’Donnell.” The attached invitation was titled, “Fundraiser with Administrator of EPA.”…

The subject line of an invitation e-mailed last week on behalf of former state health department Director Doug Benevento invited potential donors to a “Fundraiser with Administrator of EPA Stephen L. Johnson for Rick O’Donnell.”

The attached invitation was titled, “Fundraiser with Administrator of EPA.”

Benevento hosted the lunch at his Denver law firm, Greenberg Traurig, where he has practiced law since resigning from his state job Dec. 30. He said Friday that the e-mail originated from his office, and that he was accountable for it. He said the e-mail did not violate the Hatch Act, since a government official didn’t send it.

“The fact of the matter is, a private citizen took it upon himself to change the subject line and sent an e-mail that was not approved by our campaign or the EPA,” O’Donnell campaign manager KC Jones said. “Doug Benevento has apologized profusely and has said, ‘I did this. I did not know it was wrong. I’m sorry,’ ” she said.

We didn’t do it! It was this one person who did it on their own and we had no knowledge of it. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

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6 thoughts on “Another Rogue Individual…It’s an Epidemic!”

  3. Rogue staffer, indeed. The Hatch Act violation is not what should upset people.  What should upset people is that the former head of the Colorado Department of Health (Benevento) put a list of companies and others regulated by the EPA on a fundraising list for O’Donnell (obviously with O’Donnell’s awareness) to get special access to a government regulator.  Jack Abramhoff would be proud.

  4. RE:….(obviously with O’Donnell’s awareness)….
    (My Bile Rising)

    My bile would be rising as well if I made such an assertion without any possibility of proving it. Does wishing it to be make it so? Typical irrational liberal spin.

  5. Ahem – people, I think the comments some time ago indicated what a moronic choice KC was.  Does anyone need further evidence of this?  She has no clue how to run a race.

  6. D & C –I am no liberal (quite the opposite in fact), but name calling is no substitute for rational argument and if you read today;s papers you’d see that this is not going to be brushed under the rug by O’Donnell as some “liberal” conspiracy.  If O’Donnell was unaware of the mechanics of the fundraiser and unconcerned about whether access to a regulator was for sale than shame on him for being naive and unworthy of representing honest people in Congress.  If, as I suspect, O’Donnell is smarter than that, then he should simply release the list of invitees and let the public decide if anything unethical occured.

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