With gas prices hovering close to $3 a gallon, energy costs are expected to be a key issue in the 7th Congressional District race this summer and fall.
Peggy Lamm has already tried to tie her main opponent in the Democratic primary, former state Sen. Ed Perlmutter, to oil and gas interests, pointing out several votes he made on the issue and support he received from oil and gas lobbyists. But Lamm also has ties to the industry, deriving at least some income from gas and oil investments.
“There’s a lot of public outrage about gas prices,” said Seth Masket, assistant political science professor at the University of Denver. “It is obvious that there will be some effect on the fall election.”
Lamm points to Senate Bill 141, which Perlmutter sponsored during the 2002 legislature, as proof he acted on behalf of oil and gas interests. The bill, which would have allowed companies that retrieve gas and oil from land owned by others to charge them for production costs, was subject to harsh criticism. But it never passed, and there is no evidence it would have affected energy prices.
The bill was designed to settle “a turf war over costs between two oil groups – the royalty owners and the working- interest owners,” Perlmutter said.
A more recent example of industry ties is an e-mail sent by Howard Boigon, an attorney at Hogan & Hartson who represents oil and gas companies, urging members of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association to come to a May 1 Perlmutter fundraiser.
“COGA members and supporters should know that Ed has always been a fair-minded vote for reasonable treatment of the oil and gas industry while he was in the legislature,” Boigon wrote in an e-mail he provided to The Denver Post. Boigon said he was only pointing out that Perlmutter was willing to listen to both sides before deciding an issue.
“The fact that I have information and knowledge doesn’t put me in their pockets,” Perlmutter said.
Perlmutter said it is “hypocritical” for Lamm to criticize connections to the oil industry when she has ownership in two oil and gas companies.
When Lamm and her husband, Tom Lamm, filed for divorce in 2003, the couple owned $25,000 in Lammson and $15,000 in Inter-Ocean Investments, both partnerships that invest in oil and gas companies, according to court files.
Peggy Lamm owned about 10.44 percent of Lammson and about 7 percent of Inter-Ocean at the time the divorce was finalized. She was expected to receive 30 percent of whatever additional shares Tom Lamm receives in the future, the files say.
Perlmutter owns a 25 percent share in Elk Petroleum, which he estimates to be worth $50,000. Masket, the DU professor, said Lamm’s ownership of oil and gas investments may blunt some of her criticism.
“It sounds like a potentially risky strategy for her,” he said. “It might end up hurting her in the primary.”
Lamm spokesman Jim Merlino, however, said there is a difference between owning an investment and advocating for an industry.
“Ed is an advocate for the oil and gas industry, and Peggy is a consumer advocate,” he said.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
