When a political scandal breaks, one of the first logical questions to ask is, “qui bono?” Who benefits? In the case of the ongoing Scott McInnis phone message fiasco, the answer to that question was always clear: upcoming primary opponent Josh Penry. And although the origin of the “leak” of the phone message was quickly traced back to hard-right allies of Penry, it was less clear whether or not Penry himself was feeling confident enough to publicly delight in his likely opponent’s misfortune.
Former Rocky Mountain News columnist Jason Salzman caught up with Penry at the Capitol this week–safe to say that Penry is, um, not displeased. But not really exultant, either, since he doesn’t need to be:
I asked him if he approves of his supporters posting a voice mail by Scott McInnis on the Complete Colorado website. The voice recording makes it look like McInnis may be coordinating his incipient gubernatorial campaign with a 527 group, which is a serious no no.
“I’ve been down here at the state capitol working very hard, and lots of things have been happening on the blogs, and so reality is what it is,” Penry told me… [Pols emphasis]
If Penry were a loyal protégé, he would have said something like, “I don’t believe Republicans should throw each other under the bus this way. Posting a personal and inconclusive voice mail on a blog was a below-the-belt tactic worthy of Democrats, not Republicans.”
I mean, even Colorado Common Cause Director Jenny Flanagan told The Denver Post that McInnis may not technically have broken campaign laws, but Penry couldn’t be as nice to McInnis as Common Cause was!
…Look for Penry bare his fangs and run full-bore at McInnis very soon.
As far as the present scandal is concerned, Penry doesn’t have to do very much at this point–surrogates performed the initial hit, and now the liberal order of battle, who always has considered McInnis to be a more formidable general election opponent in 2010 than Penry, is doing all the scandalous follow-through. In addition to Colorado Ethics Watch’s complaint yesterday, liberal activist group Progress Now is throwing their considerable blast-email heft into the mix (release after the jump). Don’t hold your breath for Penry to thank Mike Huttner, but he probably ought to.
All signs point to continued earned-media headaches for McInnis over “to save, press 9-gate” (if somebody has a better name we’re not wedded to this one), and the fact is all Penry really needs to do is sit back and acknowledge with a smile that “reality is what it is.” It might occur to Penry at some point that there’s a reason all these liberals are jumping up to help him put McInnis’ face in the turf right out of the chute, but that’s for another blog post.
For the present, like Salzman hints, what Penry’s not saying tells you all you need to know.
ProgressNow Colorado Launches Petition and Video:
Call for Scott “McLobbyist” McInnis to be investigatedFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 8, 2009
CONTACT: Michael Huttner at 303-931-4547Denver–ProgressNow Colorado launched a statewide petition and a YouTube video joining the request for the Colorado Secretary of State to Investigate former Congressman Scott McInnis for violating state laws.
“McInnis appears to have violated the law and need to be investigated,” stated Michael Huttner, the Founder of ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s largest online progressive advocacy organization. “McInnis incriminating voicemail is just latest in a series of ethical violations, it is no surprise why he has earned the nickname McLobbyist.
Late yesterday the Denver Post reported that a watchdog group, Colorado Ethics Watch, has asked the Secretary of State to investigate whether former Congressman Scott McInnis is violating the law after a voicemail left by McInnis (“Ethics Groups asks Secretary of State to Investigate McInnis,” DP, 5/7/2009)
In the voicemail McInnis describes how he is working with a 527–which is illegal under for a candidate to work with–and that he already has conducted polling and has “day-to-day” staff working for his campaign even though he has not reported any campaign expenditures. (Grand Junction Sentinel, 5/1/2009)
“In order to preserve clean elections in Colorado, we need to have accountability and enforcement of our campaign finance laws,” stated Huttner. “We are calling on the public to join the call for an immediate investigation of whether Scott McInnis is violating state campaign finance laws.”
Background
It appears that McInnis may already be violating campaign finance laws by coordinating with a 527 issue committee. McInnis also may be failing to report expenditures for activities that have already taken place on his campaign.
McInnis told the press that he should “probably retract” his discussion with 527s and admitted that he is making his efforts “on his own dime.” (GJS, 5/1/2009)
Why is McInnis coordinating efforts between his campaign committee and a 527 issue committee? Isn’t such activity illegal under state and federal law?
And for items he is paying for on his own dime why hasn’t McInnis reported these expenditures. If McInnis is paying for campaign activities–such as polling and “day to day” staff time–why aren’t they reported?
The public can join ProgressNow Colorado’s petition calling for the Secretary of State to investigate these questions and others, to determine whether McInnis is already breaking the law by going to the following link:
http://progressnowcolorado.org…
The video launched on YouTube can be viewed by clicking the screengrab above or by going to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
To view the original complaint filed by Colorado Ethics Watch, click here:
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“Never interfere when your opponent is in the process of self-destructing.”
Penry’s a smart kid. He knows this.
🙂
I just realized that’s Dick Wadhams. This is so fucking twisted.
Love it
It’s nice to see ProgressNow send out a press release and YouTube video. I was under the impression that they’d lost all of their funding and weren’t able to be involved (what with their dismal ability to influence debates at the Capitol and all).
Hang in there, PN.