September 29, 2009 11:02 PM UTC

Did Penry's Spamming Break the Law?

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• by: Colorado Pols

We talked a couple of weeks ago about gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry’s delivery of campaign emails to a very large number of unsolicited recipients, including the official addresses of nonpartisan legislative staff and other state employees. At the time, we noted the embarrassing consequences of not checking email lists you acquire from diverse sources for recipients you don’t want (like your opponent’s staff). But we didn’t really think it was, all told, a big deal.

Well folks, we may have been a little premature with our assessment of this as small potatoes. Apparently a number of people have asserted in no uncertain terms that the only email list they could possibly have been subscribed to that Penry would have had access to was the ColoradoSenateNews.com website list, owned by the state-funded Senate Minority Office. As you know, Penry is the Senate Minority Leader, so he (obviously) has access to the list.

But appropriating the resources of the state-funded Senate Minority Office for use on a political campaign would be illegal, wouldn’t it? We, uh, ask rhetorically?