Republican congressional candidate Rick O’Donnell was wrong when he claimed his opponent had represented an insurance firm at the expense of that firm’s “elderly and disabled policyholders,” officials confirmed Thursday.
Ed Perlmutter, Democratic candidate for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, actually helped recover money in 1991 for the policyholders of Los Angeles-based Executive Life Insurance Co. and preserved assets once the firm was placed into conservatorship, officials with the California insurance commissioner’s office said Thursday.
“He was doing his legal work on behalf of getting value for the policyholders, and he was doing that work on behalf of the California insurance commissioner,” said Norman Williams, a spokesman for the commissioner.
Officials with the New York State Insurance Department, also involved in the case, said they would need more time to research the issue to determine Perlmutter’s role in New York.
Perlmutter’s campaign demanded that O’Donnell retract his accusation and issue a public apology.
“Rick O’Donnell’s credibility in this whole thing is now shot,” said Perlmutter’s campaign manager, Danielle Radovich Piper. “How you run your campaign is an indication of what type of congressman you’re going to be. He’s shown he’s totally untruthful, unreliable and irresponsible.”
Perlmutter, a former state senator and bankruptcy attorney, and O’Donnell, former head of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, are vying to fill the seat now held by Republican Bob Beauprez, who is running for governor.
O’Donnell’s campaign said it did not delve into the particulars of the case but had picked up Perlmutter’s involvement by poring through public documents.
K.C. Jones, O’Donnell’s campaign manager, declined to issue an apology or retraction.
“We were assuming that he would explain his role, as he should continue to do,” Jones said.
She reiterated O’Donnell’s challenge that Perlmutter release a list of his clients during his years as a part-time state senator.
Perlmutter, who served in the Senate from 1994 to 2002, has declined to release the names because of attorney-client privilege. He has encouraged those who want to look at the records to go to public sources to find them.
“If he has nothing to hide, then he should disclose his client list,” said Jones, who has cited case law that states the names of a lawyer’s clients are not subject to attorney-client privilege.
Meanwhile, O’Donnell on Thursday picked up the endorsements of the National Federation of Independent Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
