August 04, 2010 07:28 PM UTC

Disbarred McInnis, Anyone?

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• by: Colorado Pols

One a more serious note, the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby reports:

GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis has until Sept. 3 to respond to a request for an investigation in an attorney-discipline case filed against him that could affect his license to practice law.

Denver attorney Luis Toro, executive director of the progressive group Colorado Ethics Watch, filed the request with the state’s Attorney Regulation Counsel against McInnis soon after the former congressman admitted last month to plagiarizing material in articles about water for which a Pueblo foundation paid him $300,000…

Toro said he filed the investigation request because McInnis may be in violation of two provisions of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct, which practicing attorneys in the state are required to follow. Those rules center on an attorney’s duty not to engage in dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, and whether McInnis failed to properly supervise a nonlawyer in his employ.

“We’re just asking for an investigation because we don’t know … but if we didn’t do it, maybe nobody would,” Toro said. “This is not a simple, straightforward plagiarism case. It’s a lot more complicated than that.”

Colorado Ethics Watch is frequently dismissed as a partisan hit group, but in this case, it’s tough to imagine a more winnable case to take on–McInnis could be very good for their success ratio.