April 28, 2010 04:10 AM UTC

Charity or not, FEC shows no record of McInnis giving to RNC

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• by: BobMoore

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Denver Post’s Karen E. Crummy has done some nice reporting on John Hickenlooper’s tax returns and Scott McInnis’ decision not to release his. Obviously, the issue of charitable contributions is mushrooming.

But one thing in particular caught my eye in a follow-up story by Crummy in today’s Post, reporting on comments McInnis made on the Caplis and Silverman radio show Monday.

“The contributions I give to personally are families in need. And I give to the Republican National Committee,” he said.

Crummy’s article didn’t address how much McInnis gave to the RNC, which — unlike contributions to families in need — is a matter of public record. So I checked the Federal Election Commission database and got a surprising (to me) answer.

There’s no record of anyone named McInnis from Colorado giving to the Republican National Committee. In fact, the only record of a contribution from McInnis to a Republican group is $200 last year to the Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee.

I did find a $7,000 contribution from McInnis’ Western Way PAC to the RNC in 2004, but that’s money McInnis collected from other donors and then gave to the RNC.

Expect this issue to stick around for a bit.

For links, go to my Coloradoan blog: http://bit.ly/cz6syz

UPDATE NOTE: The $7,000 contribution to the RNC came from Friends of Scott McInnis, the predecessor committee of the Western Way PAC. It shows up in a search of the FEC site for contributions made by Western Way.

UPDATE 2: Karen Crummy followed up on this issue today. http://blogs.denverpost.com/th…

Here’s Sean Duffy’s explanation:

“In his mind, he meant the PAC donations he made over the years,” not personal donations, explained his spokesman Sean Duffy.

“It was a catch-all phrase,” Duffy further explained. “He meant all the Republican candidates the PAC gave to.”