July 30, 2007 11:27 PM UTC

Schaffer Mixing Senate Money With State Board Business?

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• by: Colorado Pols

The liberal group Progress Now is calling on Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer to return campaign cash from a donor with ties to Schaffer’s work on the State Board of Education. According to a press release:

ProgressNowAction launched a statewide petition calling on State Board of Education Member Bob Schaffer to immediately return campaign contributions he received from the owner of a for-profit education company that was rewarded a contract with the SBOE.  Schaffer cast the decisive vote to grant the contract to this company… 

…Schaffer, in his current role as a member of the Colorado State Board of Education, recently cast the deciding vote for a for-profit company, owned by David Brennan, to continue to receive tens of thousands of Colorado taxpayer dollars for programs that the company sells to Denver’s charter schools. (Denver Post, May 10, 2007).

The Denver School Board had voted 6-1 to get rid of Brennan’s costly programs, but Schaffer—conveniently disregarding the notion of “local control”—voted for huge profits for Brennan on the backs of Colorado taxpayers. (Rocky Mountain News, May 10, 2007)

According to the press release, Schaffer failed to disclose his involvement with Brennan to the State Board of Education, on which he was elected to serve in 2006. If the facts in this case are correct (see full press release below), we’ll probably see this episode in a campaign ad sometime next year. This certainly looks bad, and can be made to look even worse since Schaffer took in additional contributions from Brennan soon after the favorable vote.

ProgressNowAction launched a statewide petition calling on State Board of Education Member Bob Schaffer to immediately return campaign contributions he received from the owner of a for-profit education company that was rewarded a contract with the SBOE.  Schaffer cast the decisive vote to grant the contract to this company. 

“Backwards Bob” Schaffer needs to stop selling his vote on the State Board of Education for campaign contributions,” stated Michael Huttner, Executive Director of ProgressNowAction. “We call on Schaffer to immediately return his dirty contributions.”

Schaffer, in his current role as a member of the Colorado State Board of Education, recently cast the deciding vote for a for-profit company, owned by David Brennan, to continue to receive tens of thousands of Colorado taxpayer dollars for programs that the company sells to Denver’s charter schools. (Denver Post, May 10, 2007).

The Denver School Board had voted 6-1 to get rid of Brennan’s costly programs, but Schaffer—conveniently disregarding the notion of “local control”—voted for huge profits for Brennan on the backs of Colorado taxpayers. (Rocky Mountain News, May 10, 2007)

Facts:

Schaffer failed to disclose to the State Board that Brennan has been the subject of numerous requests for investigation in other states to determine whether he has personally pocketed millions of taxpayer dollars through his for-profit school programs. (Tampa Tribune, July 16, 2006; Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 19 and 24, 2006)

Schaffer failed to disclose to the State Board during the vote that he has taken campaign contributions from Brennan going back to 2004. (www.opensecrets.org )

Schaffer has still has not disclosed to the State Board that since this recent vote he has taken thousands of dollars more in campaign contributions from Brennan within weeks of his vote for Brennan’s company. (FEC, Schaffer Itemized Receipts, pg. 53/186)

ProgressNowAction called on its statewide membership to join their call for Schaffer to immediately return the contributions he took while serving on the State Board of Education. The petition can be signed at www.BackwardsBobEthics.com

ProgressNowAction plans to deliver the requests to Schaffer and each of the members of the State Board of Education for their response during their upcoming meetings slated for August 8 and 9, 2007.
Schaffer’s Pattern of failing to disclose conflicts of interest:

One day after voting for Brennan’s company, Schaffer introduced a motion to take away a Poudre Valley school district’s authority over its charter schools. Yet Schaffer failed to disclose that his wife serves on a committee of the charter schools in dispute or that his son was enrolled in another charter school also dispute. Schaffer refused to return requests for comment on his failure to disclose his conflict when called by the local paper. (Fort Collins Coloradoan, May 12, 2007)

In 2004, Schaffer failed to disclose accurate information about his career and was caught providing a misleading resume by claiming to be a director of a bank which did not even exist. (Denver Post, July 18, 2004)

And Schaffer still has not disclosed to the public when he plans to return the money he took from now indicted ex-Congressman Tom DeLay who has been the subject of numerous criminal investigations.(www.citizensforethics.org)

“Backwards Bob’s latest campaign contributions are just the tip of the iceberg,” stated Huttner.  “Colorado needs to hold Schaffer accountable for selling his vote to the highest donor.”