August 24, 2010 11:46 PM UTC

Nice Job If You Can Get It

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• by: Colorado Pols

Yesterday the campaign of Sen. Michael Bennet issued a press release detailing the fact that Republican Senate hopeful Ken Buck had missed at least 133 days of work (or about one-third of the time he should have been working) as Weld County District Attorney in order to campaign for the Senate.

Today, the Colorado Democratic Party issued a release calling on Republican CD-7 Ryan Frazier to pay back a chunk of his salary as an Aurora City Council Member since he has missed roughly 30% of his city council obligations in the last two years while campaigning, first for U.S. Senate, and now in CD-7.

Frazier’s missed city council duties have previously been reported by the major Denver newspaper, and Buck’s absences were recently reported by the newspaper in Greeley. We can’t recall any prior candidate for a major office missing as much time in their prior elected positions Buck and Frazier. It’s a staggering amount of absences, really, and doesn’t do much to help them make the case that they’re the candidates to fix an inefficient Congress; it’s hard to be particularly efficient when you don’t even show up for work.

This argument is particularly tough for Buck to repeat, when his opponent (Bennet) has a 100% voting record in the Senate…and his office is all the way across the country. In the month of July alone, Buck missed 25 days of work. 25!

But say this for Buck and Frazier: At least they’ve made their current jobs more attractive for future candidates. Run for my job, and you’ll only have to show up one out of every three days!

Full press releases after the jump.

Colorado Democratic Party Release:

DENVER- Ryan Frazier has missed multiple votes on crime and the city budget while he has been out campaigning for his next potential job in Congressional District 7. According to several reports, Frazier has missed approximately 30% of his city council obligations in the last two years.

In response Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak released the following statement:

“It’s appalling that Ryan Frazier thinks it’s no big deal to miss more than a quarter of work for his part-time job and think that he is still representing his district well. Missing the final vote of the city budget in such tough economic times says a lot about his priorities which he claims are the economy and balancing the budget.  Unemployed taxpayers are paying his salary- we think it’s only right for him to give back 30% of his city council pay for the votes he has missed.

“Using the excuse that he has to work to provide for his family is misleading. We know he hasn’t had a job outside of Council since he decided to run for the Senate and then Congress. Although it’s expected for sitting officials campaigning to miss some work, to miss so much over almost two years of campaigning and still think its ok is a big deal. Bob Beauprez and Paul Tauer had it right, Frazier “ought to be fired, not promoted.”

Background:

Aurora City Council Final Vote on Operating and Capital Improvement Budget for 2010, October 26, 2009

Aurora City Council Final Vote on Establishing a Tax Levy for 2010, October 26, 2010

Aurora City Council Final Vote on the Levy of Property Taxes, June 30, 2008

Aurora City Council Vote Discouraging Drug Activity, April 23, 2007

Press Release from Michael Bennet Campaign

KEN BUCK’S DAY (YEAR) OFF

Buck Owes Taxpayers $60,038 for Missing Nearly One-Third of Word Days to Campaign

DENVER, CO — Ken Buck is pretending to be fiscally responsible but as always he isn’t telling the whole truth.  Over the past 18 months, Buck has racked up a tab at the taxpayers expense of $60,038 for missing at least 113 days of work to campaign.  Will he pay back the taxpayers for failing to do his job?

“Ken Buck skips out on work and then tries to cover his tracks, but as usual he isn’t being honest with Coloradans,” said Trevor Kincaid, Bennet for Colorado spokesman. “Ken Buck has been passing the bill for his campaign onto taxpayers while pretending to be concerned about our tax dollars.  Buck’s political games and problems finding the truth continue to pile up and paint a very disturbing picture of a man who will say one thing and do another.”

In an interview with the Greeley Tribune, Buck said he misses from 15 to 45 hours of work every week to campaign.  Buck told the Tribune, “It’s a moral issue. If you’re going to take a day’s salary, you should do a day’s work.”  

As always, Buck’s record paints a very different picture than what he would have voters believe.  Buck has missed at least 32.8 percent of work on weekdays and has spent at minimum 31.5 percent of his time on the campaign trail while collecting a full time salary and benefits.  A few examples of the amount of work Buck has missed over the past few months to campaign:

March 2010 (22 days campaigning)

April 2010 (18 days campaigning)

June 2010 (19 days campaigning)

July 2010 (25 days campaigning)

During the primary, Jane Norton raised issue with the amount of time Buck was away from his duties as DA.  The concerns were echoed in a Greeley Tribune editorial, which questioned whether Buck’s actions were “morally or ethically right.”