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February 22, 2010 01:03 AM UTC

Hasan Says Campaign Law Buck Stops with God, Not Bernie Buescher

  • 56 Comments
  • by: RedGreen

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

In response to an odd question about potential campaign finance violations at a recent GOP candidate forum, Republican state treasurer candidate (and regular Pols poster!) Ali Hasan said it was the job of God, not government, to enforce Colorado fundraising laws.

Hasan’s invokation of God’s ultimate authority, reported by The Colorado Statesman, came in response to a suggestion a treasurer candidate might funnel personal contributions through acquaintances, which would violate Colorado law.

Both of Hasan’s rivals, Walker Stapleton and J.J. Ament, denied anything of the sort was going on in their campaigns and said it would spell the end of any candidacy pulling such a stunt. Hasan didn’t address whether his campaign was guilty but said the question was moot because the three candidates weren’t Democrats.

Hasan also affirmed a vow of omertà when it comes to ratting out fellow Republicans — he’s no snitch.

Read The Statesman’s account of the strange exchange below the fold.

Fountain City Councilwoman Lois Landgraf read questions submitted by the audience at a recent forum sponsored by the El Paso County Republican Women’s Club. (The Statesman doesn’t say when the event occurred, but the story is in the issue published Friday.)

Landgraf ventured into rocky territory when she read the question, “What would you do if you found out that your opponent was violating ethics by giving people money and asking them to give it back as a campaign donation?”

The candidates looked baffled; members of the audience giggled and whispered throughout the room.

“That is a campaign finance violation and it should be reported to the Secretary of State (Bernie Buescher),” declared Walker.

“It would be a risk that no candidate with integrity (running) for this office would want to be involved with,” he said, but added that if that had occurred, it would be a cause for “celebration” because the offending candidate would likely drop out of the race.

Ament said, “I’d just like say we’re not doing that – we’re working hard for every donation we receive.”

Hasan said that if a fellow candidate had violated campaign finance laws, it would be a matter between that individual and God.

“There are some punishments that God will take care of – not government. So I don’t feel it would be in my place to rat out a fellow Republican,” he explained. [emphasis added]

“This question doesn’t need to be asked. You’ve got three good men running for this office – we’re not Democrats,” asserted Hasan.

The audience burst into laughter and applause.

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56 thoughts on “Hasan Says Campaign Law Buck Stops with God, Not Bernie Buescher”

              1. street cred. I suppose committing murder or any other crime is also ultimately between a Republican and his or her God? So we don’t actually need law or law enforcement? Except for Democrats, indies and maybe members of the Green Party?

                See this may be part of what the founders were getting at with the whole forbidding government establishment of religion thing.  No Snitchin would look cute on the campaign t-shirts, though.

  3. Reading the article I find it odd that the question was asked initially to Walker Stapleton. His fundraising has been under fire with several people on both sides of the aisle who are questioning a lot of his money. While Ali Hasan may leave this to God – or Allah (depending on who he is talking to at the time) – I doubt JJ Ament’s supporters like Steve Durham will leave this to a higher authority.

    Ali Hasan wouldn’t rat anyone out. Lord knows he had enough problems in 2008 when he stalked his ex-girlfriend until she signed legal papers saying everything was fine. He lives in too big a glass house for that fight.

    The Republican nomination in this race is certainly getting interesting.

    1. I’ve said it before on here – there were seven accusations in that TRO request, all of which were false, two of which we had hard evidence behind

      Once this hard evidence was brought to the filing party’s attention, the lawyer (Rohn Robbins) immediately left his client, citing a “conflict” – link –

      http://www.vaildaily.com/artic…

      The entire request was soon withdrawn and an Eagle County judge reviewed it and vacated it completely – in addition, no “legal papers” were signed with anything saying “things are fine”

      I was innocent of all charges and I went on to win Eagle County during the HD56 race in 2008, confirming my solid relationship with Eagle County – I am deeply proud of that

    2. I wouldn’t characterize it as dishonesty, so much as a misplaced sense of honor. It’s wrong, pure and simple, to place such partisan loyalties above the public trust, but I think the intention is, in its own way, “nobler” than it sounds in translation.

      Let me put it another way: Many people would sell friends down the river for political gain, and Ali is saying he wouldn’t. Unfortunately, in this case, it would be a betrayal of the public trust not to.

      I’m far more concerned about people who are silent and sophisticated in their machiavelian machinations, than about people who are open and revealing about their own ethical misjudgments.

      Now, I think Ali has his cranium in an elevated position in his posterior orifice on matters of fiscal and economic policy, and errs in general in being a blind ideologue. And this statement does indicate one of the many reasons why he shouldn’t hold public office (or influence public policy). But I don’t think it shows the worst kind of moral failing; it just shows mistaken priorities expressed through a misplaced sense of honor.

      1. not talking out of school loyalty that led McNamara to support sending tens of thousands of drafted young Americans to their deaths long after he knew it to be a total waste for no better reason than team spirit.

        1. There are many grounds on which to condemn it, and to do so harshly. But I don’t believe that “dishonesty” (in this case) is the most accurate of those grounds. It is a different kind of failing, one which can have very serious consequences.

          1. Was not among those calling this dishonesty.  And naturally it cannot be equated in degree with McNamara’s transgression. It’s the same team player nonsense, though. Being a good team player, true to your school and all that kind of thing is hardly to be valued over doing the right thing.  

            1. It has a lot to do with the scope of your allegiance: It can be just to yourself (not at all admirable), or to your immediate team-mates, or to your party, or to your race, or to your nation, or to humanity, or to the living Earth, or to the Cosmos (okay, that might be a bit too amorphous). And these allegiances can be balanced against each other in various reasonable ways. But I tend to like the broader rather than narrower allegiances. This sort of touches on the discussion with our misnamed friend “thethinker,” who rationalizes narrower allegiances without considering the role or importance of broader communiities.

  6. Yes, let’s all applause with delight about not reporting crimes to the authorities if they’re committed by someone who happens to belong to your same political party…

    Let’s just do away with police and prisons while we’re at it, and leave justice to God.

    I didn’t realize Republicans are now anarchists.

    1. anarchists. For themselves anyway. Democrats have always been held to a higher ethical standard by republicans. A higher ethical standard than republicans expect from themselves.

      A classic example is the “impeachment” of Bubba Clinton, while at the same time the republican accusers were doing the same or worse in their own lives.

      Campaign finance is no different.  republicans expect Democrats to do as they say not as they do.  

    2. “This question doesn’t need to be asked. You’ve got three good men running for this office – we’re not Democrats,” asserted Hasan.

      Clever, no? Those damn crafty thieving Democrats. Remember back in 2006 when Jack Abramoff’s shenanigans brought about the conviction of Republican Bob Ney and several Bush White House officials? Oh wait, that was the Republicans, oops.

      Ali, you need to study up on your history, buddy or learn to keep your mouth shut. When your own opponents are telling you that you don’t know how to read a fucking budget, maybe you ought to get a clue and recognize you’re running for the wrong office.

      1. But I don’t think that’s what he was trying to say.  When I read his comment, I took it to mean “we should be attacking them, not each other.”

        Maybe it’s a distinction without a difference, I don’t know.

        One thing’s for sure though.  Since the campaign finance system is 100 percent complaint-driven, if nobody complains, there’s mo violation.

        3. A lot of people end up in prison because of some imaginary sense of “street cred”.  More likely, it comes from the Mongolian credo, “what would grandpa Genghis Khan do?”

          And in celebration of the cultures of the Olympics, maybe MotR should do an international jams day this Friday?

          “The most specific idea he had was to bring back a bunch of people who used to run state government, who know how to do things more efficiently. That’s a bad idea on so many levels that it’s not worth serious discussion. Since then, McInnis has said he really won’t know until he’s sitting behind the governor’s desk.” -Denny Herzog

  7. Sorry for the late response – the campaign is keeping me ultra busy!

    First off – thank you to Ralphie for clarifying things

    My understanding of the question asked was whether I would rat out any of my GOP opponents in this current primary for State Treasurer (JJ Ament and Walker Stapleton), in regards to a specific type of campaign finance violation

    My answer to that question was, and still is, “no”

    That answer does not extend to other Republicans under other various standards of violation – I hope that clarifies things

    Peace and love – Ali Hasan

    PS – RedGreen – I’m disappointed – you could’ve at least included my thoughts on PERA from the linked article, as well?

    🙂

    1. That wasn’t what the diary was about, but sure.

      Ament suggested that the state freeze PERA and initiate a sustainable program for new state employees.

      Hasan disagreed, “Over my dead body will PERA be bailed out by Colorado taxpayers!

      “Don’t put anyone else on PERA,” said Hasan, who called for privatizing the entire system.

      Hasan said that PERA needs to raise the age of retirement from 50 years old to 65, pay the benefits to current enrollments in the program and then, contract services to private sector companies which will pay benefits and retirement pensions.

      There’s also this exchange, where your primary opponents try to school you on basic investment facts:

      “You know one of those unsolicited credit cards you get in the mail? It shows up and says that you can spend this. That’s what we’re invested in,” declared Hasan, pointing to a page of information downloaded from the state treasurer’s Web site.

      Ament thought the question of investing in financial institutions that took bailouts was off the mark.

      … [Ament] said that former state Deputy Treasurer Dick Murphy, who served under Coffman, had scoffed at Hasan’s claim and said it was “absolutely false.”

      In a statement, Murphy said, “Without any education or experience in finance or institutional investing, it’s easy to misunderstand the state’s portfolio. ‘Asset Backed Securities,’ for example, derive their value from underlying assets they represent – not the company that may have originally assembled them. They are not investments in bailout companies as Hasan claims.”

      It should be noted that Murphy has endorsed Ament.

      Walker called the assumption, “Portfolio Management 101.”

      1. I’m not really interested to hear what Roy Romer’s fiscal liberal Deputy Treasurer has to say about which bonds to purchase….

        ….that said, the “underlying assets” of bailout companies are the reason why these companies needed a bailout to begin with – I’m not really interested in putting Colorado money into them

        2. You do realize, if you win, you’re stuck with the civil servants staffing the treasurer’s office, right? Do you know how many political appointments you’d get?  

    2. I believe that to hold office you need to take an oath to uphold the laws of the state of Colorado. And I’m pretty sure it does not allow a line “except…”.

      Yet here you state that you would not come forward if you knew of state laws being violated. How do you square that?

      1. David – I do not believe this disqualifies me at all

        Please feel free to show me the Amendment that says that it is a Constitutional obligation to rat out wrongdoers – it’s not there

        That said – if Ament and Stapleton were actually doing wrongful things with their campaign finance (which they never would, as I know both of them), then again, that is between them and God – I would confront them, but from there, they’d have to turn themselves in – and again, my answer is not an overarching philosophy towards all Republicans – this is my response regarding this one hypothetical situation

        Regarding “Oaths” again…. I believe it is the current Democratic legislature that is breaking the law and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (Constitution) by passing multiple bills that increase taxes without voter consent

        You’re welcome to beat up on me as much as you’d like, but I haven’t even done anything – the Democrats have done plenty to break Oaths already and we’re only in February….

          1. I do not find it to be of improper moral code at all to expect someone to turn himself in, due to a campaign finance violation

            If ethics within campaign finance concern you, then you’re better off looking at your own Party

            Contributions from the Cornell Group (prison builders)? The amount of corporate checks that go to Accountability For Colorado and other Democrat 527s? The forced poaching off of labor union member salaries for political contributions, without their approval?

            If you judge my moral compass to be off, then I would love to hear how you judge that of the Democratic Party?  

            1. since you all seem to think it’s quite fine for the fox to live in the henhouse and you’ve made it quite clear you aren’t going to do jackshit about upholding the law. Nice strawman turning this into a conversation about the Democratic Party but darling, the topic of the diary is all. about. you. (See title.)

              2. I’m a candidate… I’m not the Secretary of State…. and for what it is worth, if I was the Secretary of State, my approach to this entire, hypothetical situation, would be much different

                Nonetheless, my response is above – that’s the best I offer

        1. If it’s civil then you are correct that he can turn a blind eye. But corruption is an insidious thing that slithers it’s way in an inch at a time and is very hard to then back out. So politicians who say they will turn a blind eye to illegal acts are, I think, of major concern.

          I like Ali and I appreciate very much that he speaks directly to the voters. But I think his attitude in this case is bad for the body politic.

      1. where it will be dispersed by coyotes, that is between God and the individual, not something for government to concern itself with. So long as the man is a Republican.

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