April 14, 2009 08:11 PM UTC

BREAKING: Ethics Commission Clears Coffman

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• by: Awen

( – promoted by redstateblues)

RSB UPDATE: Colorado Independent reports:

Coffman’s attorney, Doug Friednash, said the complaint was part of a “scorched-earth public relations campaign” to harass the Aurora Republican, who stepped down as secretary of state after winning election to Congress last fall. During hours of testimony before the commission last month, Coffman denied acting unethically and asked that the complaint be thrown out. The commission agreed with him.

Here’s the commission’s conclusion, at the end of the 18-page ruling. It is signed by commissioners Larry Lasha, Nancy Friedman and Matt Smith, three of the five commissioners. The other two commissioners, Sally Hopper and Roy Wood, recused themselves from the complaint because of potential conflicts of interest with Coffman.

Based on the above findings of fact and analysis, the [Independent Ethics Commission] finds insufficient evidence under either a clear and convincing standard of proof or a preponderance of the evidence standard of proof to find that Coffman violated any standard of ethical conduct. Accordingly, this Complaint is dismissed.

Original post follows:

This is at least amusing…

with regard to the complaint on Dan Kopelman’s operations of PoliticalWire, the IEC ruled that Coffman should not have to be responsible for the ethical behavior of his employees.  

Secondly, there is not a preponderance of evidence that Coffman’s receipt of emails from PoliticalWire demonstrates he knew Kopelman operated an outside business.

Regarding Coffman’s relationship with PhaseLine, the IEC ruled that there was no involvement by Mike Ciletti (who dealt with the voting machines) in Coffman’s campaign, and that the SOS office took steps to ensure testing and certification process for the voting machines was fair and impartial.

They concluded there was “insufficient evidence” that Coffman violated any ethical laws. This should be an interesting question on just why CEW did not do a good job of proving their case.