March 01, 2006 09:00 AM UTC

Who Hurts Whom?

• 5 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

According to the Rocky Mountain News, House Minority Leader Joe Stengel is now under attack from some fellow Republicans who had been conspicuous in their silence on his overbilling for time worked outside of the legislature:

Five constituents of House Minority Leader Joe Stengel on Tuesday formally requested an ethics investigation of his payroll billing practices. Stengel, a Littleton Republican, already has repaid the state for claiming leadership pay on days he was in Hawaii and taking the bar exam.

Republicans have been reluctant to publicly criticize Stengel, in part because he serves in leadership. But fellow minority leader Andy McElhany, of Colorado Springs, head of the Senate Republicans, finally broke ranks Tuesday. “It stretches the limit of credibility,” he said of Stengel’s billing.

For all of the Democrats’ problems with Hanna and her “reparations” request, they were smart to get out ahead of it as much as possible by having Sen. Ken Gordon announce an ethics panel to investigate. If Hanna is indeed forced to resign, which some observers say appears more likely than it did last week, how will that affect Stengel?

We’ve already talked about how Republicans had inflated the Hanna scandal better than Democrats had stoked the Stengel fiasco, but if Hanna is forced to resign will that prod Democrats to take stronger action against Stengel? While Hanna’s resignation would create essentially an open seat in her district in 2006, Stengel’s seat is not really considered a potential Democratic pick-up. However, the headline if Stengel is forced to resign or loses his leadership position is more damaging to Republicans than the Hanna headline because Stengel is in a leadership position. Republican Leader Forced to Resign looks a lot worse than Democratic Senator Forced to Resign, which is how it would play out in the press.

In the end, it may be Stengel who could end up saving Hanna — or vice-versa.