Coffman In It Up to His Knees

13 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

The more Secretary of State Mike Coffman tries to distance himself from this scandal, the worse it gets.

The state auditor has launched an investigation into the side work of Coffman’s political appointee, Dan Kopelman. As the Rocky Mountain News reports:

The state auditor has broadened an investigation of the Colorado secretary of state’s office to determine whether any employees have misused state resources to enrich themselves.

The expanded inquiry by state Auditor Sally Symanski was sought by the watchdog group Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government.

Symanski could not be reached for comment Thursday. But secretary of state spokesman Jonathan Tee and state Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, confirmed a broader audit.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Coffman reassigned a technology supervisor and longtime political ally who operated a side business selling voter information for mainly Republican interests.

Dan Kopelman was reassigned from election operations to a job where he will not have access to voter data. His $85,000 annual salary was cut by $9,240.

An internal investigation by the secretary of state’s office determined that Kopelman did not access or sell state voter information, according to Tee. But he said Kopelman broke two state personnel rules by engaging in outside employment without gaining Coffman’s permission and by hosting a partisan political Web site while working in the elections division.

Coffman is claiming ignorance on this one, but the editorial board of the Rocky Mountain News isn’t buying it:

But selling voter information definitely conflicts with work in the elections division, even if it’s done after-hours. Coffman maintains an internal investigation revealed that Kopelman didn’t access or sell voter information, but he’s called in the state auditor’s office to check further. If it turns out that Kopelman did exploit his job, then further discipline would be required.

Coffman said he didn’t know about Kopelman’s Web site until it was brought to his attention the other day. That’s somewhat surprising, but even more surprising is that he didn’t take special pains to make sure Kopelman quit his voter data business while working in the elections division. The Web site was especially offensive since Kopelman had updated his biographical information to note that he was in fact working for the secretary of state.

Coffman didn’t know about Kopelman’s Web site? He and Kopelman are longtime political allies, and Coffman paid Kopelman for political work during his campaign last year. This could get worse before it gets better for Coffman.

13 thoughts on “Coffman In It Up to His Knees”

kazakhvoter says:

May 11, 2007 at 6:52 pm

Wouldn’t it be fair to question Stephanie O’Malley’s appointment along with the Kopelman scandal? Just to save space, I’ll list the issues for you: 1) O’Malley has no experience as an election administrator, and no intuitive grasp of right and wrong concening election neutrality. She is Wellington Webb’s daughter, so she got the job;2)
she abdicated on campaign finance reporting: her own reports were filed late, Gallagher’s were filed late, she did not question the robo call failure to identify who paid, she did not question the payment of almost $50,000 to
a city employee by his boss; 3)she did not question many complaints that candidate Paul Lopez did not meet residency requirements. Oh, I forgot! The City of Denver has been given an ethics waiver in order to promote the Democratic Convention!
Jan Tyler, former Denver Election Commission
(let’s see, call me “angry,” “unhappy with the results…”
still doesn’t change these facts…besides, I’m not angry..as long as these folks keep it up, I have something to write about…it is actually total entertainment)

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1. Roger D says:
  
  May 12, 2007 at 9:19 pm
  
  Besides, you allege ethics violations, but don’t support them with ‘facts’.
  
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One Queer Dude says:

May 11, 2007 at 7:35 pm

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f.sage says:

May 11, 2007 at 8:52 pm

For years, on every level from federal to local, from DOJ to state Secretary of State offices, the Republican strategy for maintaining a permanent Republican majority seems to be securing entirely partisan control of as much of the election apparatus as possible. Conservatives can point to instances of questionable actions on the Dem side but in terms of sheer volume, over recent years there is simply no comparison between the two parties in terms of illegal practices and plain old dirty tricks. Party affiliation aside, all of Colorado’s citizens couldn’t possibly have done better in 2006 than by electing Ken Gordon as a Secretary of State we could ALL trust to do the right thing with perfect integrity. What a shame we didn’t.

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1. DavidThi808 says:
  
  May 12, 2007 at 6:33 pm
  
  Coffman so far appears to be trying to do a good and fair job. I am willing to wait and see how he handles this and the rest of his job.
  
  And if this guy is a good friend of his, it is natural that he may be a bit slower to cut him loose. That’s human nature.
  
  So give him another week or two to see how this is handled. Then pile on him if he doesn’t do the right thing.
  
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DavidThi808 says:

May 12, 2007 at 6:30 pm

“its not my enemies that keep me up late at night worrying – its my friends.”

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1. parsingreality says:
  
  May 13, 2007 at 3:16 am
  
  “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
  
  Heard that is middle Eastern, don’t know.
  
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parsingreality says:

May 13, 2007 at 3:13 am

Obviously, I would have preferred Ken Gordon, but if one or two Pubs had to win state offices, Mike is the guy.

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1. windbourne says:
  
  May 13, 2007 at 5:39 pm
  
  So he is one of the “good” republicans, and yet is corrupt. Makes me wonder how truly bad the “corrupt” republicans are.
  
  This bodes ill for us. We need to clean up our gov. at both state and federal levels. The fact that these guys thought that can get by with this really bothers me. It means that there are far worse actions going on.
  
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  1. DavidThi808 says:
    
    May 13, 2007 at 8:25 pm
    
    Do you have any specifics? More than he has a political friend who is as that seems to be universal.
    
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    1. windbourne says:
      
      May 18, 2007 at 4:59 am
      
      I have kept quiet on this for a bit to allow this thread to die, knowing that you will check who replies to your stuff.
      
      While I do not know your full background, we both know that large systems have security built-in. In particular, the IRS and SOS type have very few chances for ppl to pull off massive fraud. I am sure that you have followed the recent CO IRS hack, and have realized that she knew their system well enough to get around the security. In fact, I would guess that she has had more help than is being acknowledged. But the SOS is a different matter. It is almost certain that the info was being reported up the ladder as to repeated queries. Kopelman is not a CS or CIS type person. It is all but certain that they security systems reported all this. Mike Coffman had at least SOME level of knowledge of what was going on.
      
      He was either in on it, was purposely ignoring his reports, or simply was not reading the reports. At the least, that makes him incompetent.
      
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    2. windbourne says:
      
      May 18, 2007 at 5:29 am
      
      It would appear that the guys is some form of a DBA and more so that he was in charge of production. It would be trivial for him to get around the reports. If so, then I do not blame coffman. But if the info was on reports and it can be shown that the should have known, then yes, I would consider him guilty.
      
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  2. parsingreality says:
    
    May 14, 2007 at 2:04 am
    
    I don’t see him as corrupt, at least as of yet. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. That he gave an $80K job to a supporter isn’t terribly new in olitics. If a person has the qualificaitons, I really don’t have a problem with that.
    
    I remember when JFK appointed his brother RFK to be AG. Wheweeee, youdda thought he appointed his dead dog. But RFK turned out to be one of the most aggressive, far sighted AG’s we’ve ever had.
    
    Then there is Wellington Webb……..
    
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