September 17, 2009 08:13 AM UTC

Gale Norton Under Federal Corruption Investigation

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• by: CastleMan

(so sue me, if you don’t think this belongs on the Front Page.  This looks big to me. – promoted by Barron X)

Another scandal threatens to further erode the already dismal reputation of George W. Bush’s administration. The twist is that the subject of an investigation into corruption at the Department of Interior – Colorado’s own Gale Norton might – just might – reverberate in the race for our state’s junior U.S. Senate seat.

That federal prosecutors are looking into whether former secretary Norton abused her power to favor the oil company that hired her after her tenure at the Interior Department ended is not really very surprising. Norton’s deputy secretary has already been convicted on obstruction of justice charges arising from his dealings with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Many observers of Centennial state politics, including (I think) some posters here, have speculated that at least some of Jane Norton’s name recognition is based on the mistaken perception that she is Gale Norton. If that is true, then I surmise it is possible that any indictment and trial of the former Interior secretary could have some impact on Republican voters faced with a field of seven candidates in the primary as of now.

Why does that matter? Because at least one poll shows that Jane Norton is the strongest GOP candidate against either Sen. Michael Bennet or his Democratic challenger, former state House speaker Andrew Romanoff.

I won’t make a prediction about whether this legal development, combined with some Coloradoans’ confusion about the Republican Nortons, will affect the Senate race. But one has to think it might.