State Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Waak on Thursday filed a request for records of reimbursements received last year by Republican House Minority Leader Joe Stengel.
Waak’s open-records request follows news reports that Stengel and other lawmakers received thousands of dollars of per-diem compensation for working on legislative business when the General Assembly was not in session.
Stengel, R-Littleton, dismissed the request – which he said he had not received Thursday evening – as an election-year gimmick designed to take attention away from Democratic lawmakers’ own financial controversy. That flap, fueled by the state Republican Party, is over in-kind donations some Democratic legislators have reported receiving from a group known only as Research and Democracy.
Republicans are waiting for Democrats’ response to a records request on that front, GOP attorney John Zakhem said.
When the dust settles on Waak’s request of Stengel, he will be exonerated, Stengel said.
“I’m perfectly within the law to take per diem as minority leader, as is every other legislator that’s in leadership,” Stengel said. “I’ve done nothing that the statute does not allow.”
Thursday also saw another partisan legal attack, with Zakhem filing a campaign-finance complaint about Manitou Springs Democrat Rep. Michael Merrifield.
In that complaint to the secretary of state’s office, the state Republican Party accuses Merrifield of failing to report an October poll conducted on his behalf as either an expenditure or an in-kind donation.
“We think that’s a violation,” Zakhem said.
But Merrifield called the complaint against him baseless, saying he never requested, paid for, received or even saw a poll about his political prospects last fall.
“I heard the results of two polls – one a Republican poll,” he said. “It’s always nice to get the Republicans to do your research for you.”
Merrifield said he will consult a lawyer to see if he needs to file a response to the Republican complaint.
Other than that, “My response will be to kick their butt when I run for re-election,” he said.
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
