April 11, 2007 03:59 PM UTC

Unauthorized Use Of Colorado State Seal: A Felony

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• by: Colorado Pols

Being the nice guy that Secretary of State Mike Coffman is, however, he’s going to cut the Senate Republicans a break. This time. Even though it’s apparently not the first time they’ve pulled this, as the Rocky Mountain News reports:

[Senate Minority Leader Andy] McElhany said he removed the Colorado seal from coloradosenatenews.com after Secretary of State Mike Coffman reminded party caucuses April 2 they can’t use the seal in communications.

It’s a felony to use the state seal for anything but official documents. [Pols emphasis]

This isn’t the first time Republicans violated the state’s strict rule about misusing the seal.

Former Republican Senate President John Andrews was forced to pull the seal from a GOP political Web site called coloradosenate.com in 2003…

“What concerns me is that a political committee is funding the creation of a Web site that purports to be a news and information site (that was) bearing the Colorado state seal,” said Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government.

“Nowhere does it indicate that it’s the Web site of the Minority office. It just says it’s the “Senate News,” she added. “I think that is misleading and disingenuous, because clearly the Senate Majority Fund has a very partisan motive.”

McElhany says that critics are making a “mountain out of a molehill” regarding this issue,  although he sure is scrambling to cover up the molehill. An unofficial (note the lack of an official seal) poll follows.