The man at the center of one of last year’s biggest legislative ethics scandals has landed in another – this time voluntarily.
Former House Minority Leader Joe Stengel is representing ccAdvertising, a Virginia company that produced the robo-calls at the heart of a complaint against lobbyist William Mutch.
Mutch, who represents the homebuilders group Colorado Concern, is accused by Democratic Reps. Alice Borodkin of Denver and Nancy Todd of Aurora of orchestrating calls to constituents that said the lawmakers were backing a bill that would raise taxes on their homes.
Documents filed with the legislative ethics committee investigating the complaints indicate Mutch and Colorado Concern have complied with the panel’s request for communications related to their lobbying efforts – including scripts of the telephone calls.
But a letter from Stengel – now an attorney for Benson and Case – says simply: “Our client, ccAdvertising is not at liberty to provide the materials you have requested.”
Stengel says his client – which is not accused of any wrongdoing – is simply standing by its principles.
“One of them is the right to privacy, and the second is the freedom of speech,” he said.
“ccAdvertising is a national company and its clients across the United States I’m sure are looking to see how rapidly they turn over the information.”
Since his client is not accused of any wrongdoing, Stengel says he doesn’t plan to attend Monday’s scheduled hearing on the complaint. But Stengel is not new to the ethics investigation process.
Last year, he resigned his leadership post after his colleagues launched a probe into what was later determined to be “excessive off-session pay.” Stengel had billed taxpayers for working 237 days in 2005, including all weekends and time spent vacationing in Hawaii and taking the bar exam.
Lottery idea spanked
Sen. Chris Romer last week pulled his proposal to sell off the state lottery to help the cash-strapped state raise a few extra billion dollars.
Although he admits the governor was unhappy with him, Romer – the son of former Gov. Roy Romer – says he dropped the idea because he didn’t like the proposed ballot language referring to the sale as “debt.”
But Sen. Josh Penry, his Republican friend and co-sponsor, insisted Friday the bill was pulled under pressure from Gov. Bill Ritter because GOP members had jumped on board and were touting it as an alternative to the governor’s controversial plan to eliminate some property tax reductions.
“It’s been 30 years since Romer was spanked by a governor,” Penry joked.
Capitol Bureau chief Jeri Clausing writes Sundays. She can be reached at 303-954-1555 or jclausing@denverpost.com.
