June 22, 2015 07:25 PM UTC

Mystery Character #4 Revealed in Coffmangate Scandal

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• by: Colorado Pols

On Saturday, Colorado Pols was first to report details about the rapidly-growing Coffmangate scandal involving Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and a handful of other Republicans (for more background on this rapidly-evolving story, see the links at the bottom of the page). One of the revelations from our Saturday post was about the emergence of another key player in this scandal:

Player #4 Has Entered
Apparently there is a fourth person who was heavily involved in the alleged extortion attempt of House; as of now, only Cynthia Coffman, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, and Pueblo County Republican Party Chair Becky Mizel have been publicly named. It would be a logical guess to say that former state Sen. Ted Harvey will be pulled into this before long — Harvey’s desire to be appointed Executive Director of the State Party has reportedly been a key piece of the extortion attempt — and perhaps he is the so-called “fourth person” now involved.

We can now report that the fourth “mystery player” is in fact Tea Party activist Mike McAlpine, who was in charge of the 2013 recall attempt against Democratic Sen. Evie Hudak. From what we hear, McAlpine may have played a key role in potentially manufacturing evidence to be used in an effort to convince Steve House to resign as GOP Chair. For what it’s worth, McAlpine also has close ties to State Sen. Laura Waters Woods (R-Arvada), who won the SD-19 seat in November 2014.

(Note: This doesn’t mean that Ted Harvey was not involved — it seems logical that he is, given that he was the topic of the reported threats — but only that Harvey is not officially the “4th person as we had previously described on Saturday.”)

So when does the big hammer of an investigation/indictment come crashing down? It could be as soon as tomorrow, from what we’re hearing, though it might be pushed into Wednesday. We hear that law enforcement/prosecutors are taking a little extra time to make preparations for what will undoubtedly be a media circus when all is revealed.

Need to get caught up on Coffmangate?

♦ More background on how this scandal started with an attempted coup of State Republican Party Chair Steve House.

♦ Read up on why Cynthia Coffman’s political career is already over.

 As always, you heard it here on Colorado Pols first.