June 19, 2009 01:50 AM UTC

Do As I Say, Not As I... (Senate Minority Office Edition)

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• by: Colorado Pols

We talked earlier today about the problems new Colorado Senate President Brandon Shaffer had this week over two issues: the first being a ‘conflict resolution’ retreat for Democratic committee chairs and staff that has now been rebilled to the party instead of the taxpayers, and the second being a smaller scandal surrounding bonuses given primarily to the staff of former Senate President Peter Groff, who resigned to take a job in the Obama administration.

The bonus scandal, as we said, seems to be limited to Groff and his staff–current President Shaffer gave his low-paid part time staffer a bonus, but the lion’s share of bonuses went to Groff’s leadership staff. As has been noted Republicans did not give their staff any bonuses this year, though in prior years–including 2008–they gave considerably larger bonuses to their staff than Democrats.

But we also told you that Republicans would not hesitate to exploit this gaffe for everything it’s worth, past history or no–and true to form, this breathless statement went up on the Senate Minority’s website this morning.

“Revelations about bonuses recently awarded to Senate Democrat staff in the General Assembly came as an affront to the many, many Coloradans who have faced the threat of furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs amid our nation’s devastating recession,” the senators write in their letter. “So, we were dismayed to learn that your administration has not suspended the same practice, or at least established clear guidelines.”

The Associated Press reported earlier this week that Ritter’s chief of staff, Jim Carpenter, said Ritter is trying to discourage executive directors from giving bonuses this year, but he can’t guarantee they haven’t been handed out.

A good tack moving this away from Shaffer and Groff (not targets) to Governor Bill Ritter (GOP Public Enemy #1), and we’ll see what comes out–you can be assured that the press won’t be waiting for the Senate Minority’s press release to find out about any executive branch bonuses.

But there is one little detail in this latest exchange that we think merits pointing out–the ‘policy director’ of the Senate Minority Office and the closest thing they have to a chief of staff, Dan Njegomir, is the guy responsible for approval of external communications from the office. While we’re talking about expenses and bonuses, somebody might ask Njegomir how he’s enjoying the highest salary of any staffer in Senate leadership from either party–and how he spent last year’s $12,000 bonus, which we believe holds the record for the biggest bonus given to Senate staff in either party. Check out former Minority Leader Andy McElhany’s letter authorizing the payment of 2008’s GOP Senate bonuses after the jump.

As we’ve said from the beginning, the Democrats won’t fully escape criticism for paying these bonuses in a fiscally bleak year, and Republicans would be fools not to extract as much damage from the situation as they can. But their own history on bonuses prevents them from taking this beyond a certain point, after which they begin to look like opportunistic hypocrites. It’s not for us to make the call where that point is, but you’ll know it when you see it.