A lobbyist who approached a lawmaker to talk about the House Republican leadership race never suggested a vote for anyone, according to an attorney representing the lobbyist.
Erik Groves, a lobbyist for the Colorado Chiropractic Association, only called Rep.-elect Cindy Acree, an Aurora Republican, to ask whom she was going to vote for, not to lobby her in any way, said Dick Kaufman, an attorney representing Groves.
Groves now is the subject of an ethics complaint over the conversation. He received a letter Wednesday from House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, and Senate president Peter Groff, D-Denver, saying that a lawmaker had complained he was an “active participant” in the leadership race to replace House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, who had planned to retire.
Kaufman said Groves never lobbied Acree, who has not yet been sworn in as a lawmaker.
Groves was just trying to determine how many votes there were for each of the two Republicans seeking to replace May as minority leader — Rep. David Balmer of Centennial and Rep. Frank McNulty of Highlands Ranch.
“He (Groves) went to see Rep.-elect Acree in person, and he did say, ‘I would like to talk to you about the leadership race,’ ” Kaufman said. “She said, ‘We can’t talk about that because of the rules, and we need to terminate that part of the conversation,’ and they did.”
Groves also said in the affidavit he was not calling on behalf of any candidate, despite speculation he was calling for Balmer.
“Rep. Balmer had no involvement in this situation whatsoever,” Groves wrote in the affidavit. “Nobody, including Rep. Balmer, ever asked me to act in any way regarding the minority leader vacancy.”
May said Friday he would likely stay through the entire legislative session rather than retiring to tend to his business as he’d planned earlier this month.
He said the internal strife over selecting his replacement, as well as an alarming budget forecast released Friday, prompted him to abandon his plans to leave.
“I’m going to be staying around for awhile until we get through this,” May said.
May made the announcement the same day a legislative panel voted to proceed with the ethics complaint against Groves.
May admitted he’d filed a separate complaint against a lawmaker over whether the legislator may have encouraged Groves to violate rules. He did not say whether the lawmaker in question was Balmer.
