September 09, 2008 12:59 AM UTC

Details Emerge In Elections Director Resignation

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday, following up on Thursday’s surprise resignation of Secretary of State Mike Coffman’s elections director. It’s worse than you thought:

The abrupt resignation Thursday of a top elections official at the secretary of state’s office happened in the midst of a watchdog group’s investigation into her relationship with a local businessman who has contracts with that office.

Holly Lowder, 66, resigned from her post as elections director two months before what is expected to be one of the biggest elections in recent Colorado history. She held that job since 2006. Before that, Lowder served as Alamosa County clerk for about 25 years.

Colorado Ethics Watch had been pursuing documents from the state regarding Lowder’s ties to John Paulsen.

Paulsen, 59, operates a software company called LEDS, LLC from his home in Castle Rock, records show. LEDS has installed voter databases in more than 30 counties and recently got two contracts worth almost $184,000 with the secretary of state’s office for data work related to the current election season.

Records show that Lowder recently lived at a Cherokee Street home in Denver that is owned by Paulsen.

Chantell Taylor, director of Ethics Watch, called Lowder’s resignation “no coincidence.”

…[w]hen asked why she resigned, she said “I retired. I did not resign.”

Paulsen did not return numerous phone calls and e-mails seeking comment…

“Our question was, ‘Well gosh, is she getting free rent?’ ” Taylor said, adding that she wants to know if Lowder was recusing herself from decisions related to Paulsen’s contracts.

Online records show that Lowder and Paulsen share the same phone number at the Cherokee Street address. That phone number is also listed at Lowder’s current apartment…

Just incredible, isn’t it? First you have Coffman’s “right hand man” dealing voter data to Republicans in his “spare time.” Then you have Coffman’s congressional campaign consultants exposed as simultaneously lobbying for the one electronic voting machine manufacturer that Coffman didn’t disqualify. Coffman’s chief of staff gets caught electioneering on staff time. And now this–the director of elections shacked up with one of her major contractors, unbeknownst to anybody?

It’s no wonder that Coffman was the subject of yet another Democrat call to resign immediately today (release follows), and at this point at seems to us that if anybody has ever run a dubious front office in Colorado government, it’s Mike Coffman. In a perfect world, the aggregate weight of these scandals would have ended Coffman’s career a year ago–not to mention an immediate resignation would still allow Governor Ritter to appoint someone to clean up the mess before November 4th.

This late in the game, we suspect everyone is waiting for Coffman to fail upward into Congress so they don’t have to deal with him anymore, and obviously no Democrat wanted to get in his face before the August 28th replacement candidate dealine. We understand, but will they regret their hands-off decision if Coffman’s shaky operation comes apart on Election Day?

Statewide Call for Mike Coffman to Resign

Coloradans need full-time, focused Secretary of State w/o Conflicts

For Immediate Release

September 8, 2008

Contact: Michael Huttner

(303) 931-4547 cell

Denver — With last Friday’s latest blow-up in a growing record of conflicts of interest, ProgressNowAction called on Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman to resign his office immediately. The group also launched a statewide online petition calling of the public to join them in their call for Coffman to resign because he cannot adequately oversee an election in which he is also a congressional candidate.

“Secretary Coffman has a pattern of conflicts of interest and should resign immediately,” stated Michael Huttner, Executive Director of ProgressNowAction, the state’s largest online advocacy organization.  “After last Friday’s resignation of the State Elections Director, Coloradans need a full-time Secretary of State, not someone who’s campaigning full-time and overseeing the election on the side.”

Coffman was elected Secretary of State less than two years ago and is responsible for facilitating and regulating all precedures for fair and efficient elections in Colorado. He decided to run for Congress after only nine months on the job. And in his short tenure, he has faced continuous criticism for conflicts of interest.

The online petition can be signed by the public and can be found at:

https://progressnowaction.org/C…

“Colorado voters cannot afford to have a fox guarding the henhouse,” Huttner noted.

Coffman’s History of Conflicts-of-Interest:

Last Friday Coffman’s State Elections Director resigned after Colorado Ethics Watch exposed a conflict of interest between Coffman’s office and a voter databse consultant who received over $183,000 in contracts from Coffman’s office in the past year.(RMN, 9/6/2008)

In April, Colorado Ethics Watch alleged that Coffman was fundraising on taxpayers’ time. (RMN, 4/4/2008)

In December, the Rocky Mountain News reported that the political consulting company running Coffman’s congressional campaign also was working for the only voting machine manufacturer whose machines Coffman certified. (RMN, 12/20/2007)

Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold, was the only one of four voting machine companies to have all of its equipment conditionally approved by Coffman for use in 2008 elections.  Premier hired Phase Line Strategies, which is running Coffman’s campaign, in September to lobby on its behalf, records show.

In response to a request from Colorado Ethics Watch last May, the Colorado State Auditor’s office launched an investigation into Coffman’s office because an employee was operating a website and company that offered to sell voter information to Republicans.  The audit concluded that Coffman botched the most fundamental duties of his office by mismanaging voter data, misplacing federal funds and allowing state employees to engage in outside employment without proper disclosure.

And in 2004 Coffman was the first Colorado statewide elected official to be found guilty of violating the Fair Campaign Practices Act by the Colorado Supreme Court for misusing his public office.

Colorado Ethics Watch filed a complaint with the newly-established Independent Ethics Commission against Coffman for his pattern of ethical misconduct. Visit Ethics Watch’s website for more information.

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