August 19, 2010 11:22 PM UTC

Liberals Thank Jane Norton for Swell Buck Hits

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Daily News’ Peter Marcus reports:

Liberal groups are calling for the Federal Election Commission to quickly investigate a complaint against Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck.

The issue popped up during the primary when a former Republican Gov. Bill Owens administration official filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that Buck conspired with his former employer, Jerry Morgensen, chief executive of Hensel Phelps Construction Co., to raise more money than allowed under campaign finance laws.

The complaint, filed by Charles Grice, a former official in the Owens administration, alleges that Buck and Morgensen created a 527 political action committee with the intention of collecting larger donations to the Buck campaign for purchases such as ad buys. The campaign finance limit is $2,400.

Buck’s campaign maintains that there is no truth to the allegations…

Grice goes on to allege that Buck told supporters that Morgensen would spend as much as $1 million to support his campaign, and that Buck told supporters that it was legal to give donations greater than the limit of $2,400 when donating in excess. He allegedly told supporters to direct those contributions to the conservative Declaration Alliance 527 group, according to the complaint.

if you recall, Republican Charles Grice (like Jane Norton, a former Bill Owens administration official), filed this complaint against Ken Buck and longtime business associate Jerry Morgensen of Hensel Phelps–and Norton relentlessly hammered Buck for his “crony politics” all the way through the primary season on the strength of this complaint.

After everything known about Norton’s deep ties to Washington, D.C. insiders, it can be fairly stated that this attack was more than a little bit hypocritical coming from her campaign, and we said so at the time. We also said that despite the dubiousness of the messenger, the outsize ratio of ‘independent’ expenditures to direct donations in Buck’s primary election was quite curious.

Now Norton is out of the picture–and the complaint against Buck has a life of its own.