Colorado’s top climate change guru told The Denver Post on Wednesday that she is severing ties with a liberal think tank that pays her $3,000 a month.
Climate change coordinator and former state Rep. Alice Madden has worked for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress as a paid expert since January 2008.
“I take to heart their worry that there may be an appearance of potential conflict,” Madden said in a statement running on today’s Page 10B, The Post editorial page. “I also have little doubt that keeping the fellowship, which I have openly held for almost two years, would be used in partisan attacks against Governor Bill Ritter.”
The outside employment came to light after Ritter in October asked his top staff and appointees to comply with a 1999 law requiring them to file conflict-of-interest disclosures.
Conservative critics questioned whether a think tank with a policy bias should be allowed to employ one of Ritter’s top advisers.
Jessica Fender, The Denver Post
