April 09, 2009 05:41 PM UTC

"McLobbyist" In Or Out?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Almost three weeks ago, the Denver Post reported that former congressman Scott McInnis “privately” had announced his intentions to run for Governor. You know, privately, as in “reported by the Denver Post” from a GOP state party function. Which seems not very “private” at all, being the talk of the GOP’s biggest annual event, and reported in the state’s newspaper of record–we’ll revisit that in a moment.

A couple of days ago, word circulated of a letter sent by McInnis to lots of registered Republicans, asking for “advice” solving the “problems” facing the GOP and Colorado in general. This letter didn’t explictly say “I’m going to run for Governor,” but it was clearly intended to plant his name in people’s minds.

This morning, the Denver Post reports:

An “enthusiastic” supporter of Scott Mc Innis has registered six political domain names for the former congressman, including ScottMcInnisforGovernor.com.

Another name is ScottMcInnisforColorado.com.

McInnis told friends and supporters he is running for the GOP nomination for governor in 2010 but has yet to make a formal announcement.

The domain names were registered by Joshua Green of Colorado Springs. Green and McInnis’ former chief of staff, Mike Hess, last year worked together on Bentley Rayburn’s congressional campaign…

We don’t know about you, but do you buy the “enthusiastic supporter who just happens to be a seasoned campaign worker” bit for a moment? Didn’t think so. Because you’re not stupid.

This is where we turn it over for discussion–kind of like Bob Schaffer’s endless stalling of his “formal” announcement that he was running for Senate–how long do they get to “unofficially” set up their campaigns, when everybody knows that’s what they’re doing, before they have to file papers and report donations like everybody else? When does that clock start ticking, or more to the point, when should it?

We’d say the question is worth asking any time these guys try to pull this “shadow campaign” stuff, a seeming favored tactic of nervous Republicans these days–but in the case of McInnis and his history of questionable campaign fund expenditures, we’d say it’s doubly worth asking. Because as we’ve said repeatedly, we’ll believe McInnis is running only when he starts a formal campaign for governor, starts raising money, and starts going around the state as a candidate. Until then…this is just another in a long list of races that McInnis has “strong interest” in running for.