January 26, 2011 07:18 PM UTC

You Were Saying? Hatch Act Edition

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• by: Colorado Pols

Back in 2005 and 2006, we wrote a couple of times about alleged violations of the federal Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity, involving then-CD-7 GOP candidate Rick O’Donnell and cabinet-level officials under President George W. Bush who headlined attended O’Donnell campaign events. At the time, there was lots of discussion about the Hatch Act’s full interpretation–and commenters coming out of the woodwork to tell your hosts that we were totally wrong about it as it applied to these events. A favorite:

Coloradopols obviously doesn’t understand the Hatch Act.

Well folks, only about five years later, the Colorado Independent reports:

A report released yesterday by the Office of Special Counsel indicates that the George W. Bush White House violated the Hatch Act by spending taxpayer money to send a cabinet level official to Colorado to campaign for Rick O’Donnell in his 2006 run against Ed Perlmutter for what was then an open congressional seat.

The report, “Investigation of Political Activities by White House and Federal Agency Officials During the 2006 Midterm Elections,” found that “White House Office of Political Affairs (OPA) employees, as well as high-level agency political appointees, violated the Hatch Act through a number of practices that were prevalent during the months leading up to the 2006 midterm elections.”

The Hatch Act prohibits the use of government resources for campaign purposes.

The report found that the OPA, under the direction of Karl Rove, repeatedly violated the Hatch Act.

It would have been nice to see this a little sooner than 2011, but we do accept belated apologies.