October 18, 2010 09:44 PM UTC

Perlmutter Presses Frazier Stimulus Hypocrisy

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• by: Colorado Pols

In Saturday’s lively 9NEWS debate between Rep. Ed Perlmutter and Aurora City Council Ryan Frazier, one big takeaway emerged–and no, we’re not talking about the silly hand-slapping stuff. Perlmutter’s campaign is pressing the attack against Frazier after it was disclosed in this debate that a charter school Frazier co-founded has accepted over $100,000 in funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, known in the pejorative by Republicans as “teh stimulus.”

From Perlmutter’s release today:

It’s been nearly 48 hours, and Republican candidate for the 7th CD, Ryan Frazier, still refuses to answer questions about the more than $100,000 of Recovery Act money his charter school accepted.  After a 9 News Debate in which Ed Perlmutter revealed Frazier’s hypocrisy about Frazier’s position on the stimulus bill, Frazier acknowledged to The Denver Post that despite being a co-founder and Vice President of the School Board of High Point Academy who is charged with overseeing its budget, he didn’t know anything about the stimulus money the school received.

Frazier agreed to provide information to the public on this  but the questions remain:

1. Did Ryan Frazier show up and vote on his school’s budget or not?

2. Did Ryan Frazier do his fiduciary duty as Vice President of the Board of High Point Academy and read and take action on his school’s budget – or was Ryan Frazier a no-show on this board too?

3. Considering Frazier has missed over 30% of his City Council votes over the past 2 years, what is Frazier’s attendance record as a School Board member?

“The people of the 7th CD deserve honesty and integrity and Ryan Frazier is showing neither.  Frazier continues to use the national Republican talking points of saying the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) was a “failed stimulus.”  Yet Frazier won’t acknowledge the benefits of the program to his own school that used the  money to hire teachers and paraprofessionals to teach disabled children; or the jobs created to work on the I-225 and Colfax interchange in his own city of Aurora; or the thousands of teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, private sector businesses and research institutions in the 7th Congressional District alone that were able to maintain and create new jobs as a result” said Leslie Oliver, Perlmutter spokeswoman.

Ouch! Stimulus hypocrisy is all the rage these days, but it’s a lot worse when you’re on the board that approves the budgets of a school that took ARRA money–Frazier’s response during the debate that this is ‘the first he’s heard of it’ is pretty much only believable if you accept that Frazier wasn’t doing his job. Of course, the real issue is that Frazier in all likelihood knew all about this money, but didn’t consider it a campaign-trail mentionable. Which, you know, figures.