In any election season, it’s important to look at more than a candidate’s record regarding career accomplishments and political stances. Sometimes, you have to consider their police record, too.
How would-be politicians conduct themselves in regards to the law is relevant and can be very telling.
For some, their actions are reasons not to vote for them. Even though state law doesn’t preclude them from running, common sense should.
Sorting through public records, The Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels found instances of arrests, restraining orders, bankruptcies and bad checks among the candidates for Colorado’s statehouse. (Check it out at .)
Republicans outdid their Democratic counterparts 15 to 7. None of the records appear to preclude the candidates from taking office. Colorado’s constitution disallows office only to those convicted of “embezzlement of public moneys, bribery, perjury, solicitation of bribery or subordination of perjury.”
Many of the infractions are examples of poor judgment that occurred during candidates’ younger years. But some ought to take them out of the running. Take Republican Clint Webster of Lakewood, who is running against Rep. Sue Schafer, D-Wheat Ridge, for the House District 24 seat.
Webster was arrested in 1987 for disturbing the peace over, he said, “something involving my son. My big mouth got me in trouble.”
Though that charge was dismissed, a more troubling incident arose in 1991. Webster was arrested after threatening to kill his ex-wife and firing two shots at her and another person from a pistol as they drove away from his house.
No one was hurt, and Webster pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, a felony, and two counts of felony menacing. The felonies were later dismissed because Webster completed a diversion program.
Now, Webster says the counseling he received was “the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Indeed. Redemptive stories should never be overlooked, but voters deserve to know the facts.
Bob Lane, a Republican running in House District 9, pleaded guilty just last year to a petty offense of disturbing the peace after initially being charged with misdemeanor assault. His response? “It was a very minor incident that occurred last summer with a woman I was dating.”
Voters will decide if that’s minor.
Meanwhile, political opponents of Democratic Rep. Dennis Apuan of Colorado Springs are attacking him for his arrest in 2002 during a peaceful political protest. The charge of trespassing at Peterson Air Force Base during a protest against nuclear weapons resulted in a sentence of 48 hours of community service.
We hardly think the crime — handing out prayer cards during an anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — disqualifies Apuan from representing a district that includes Fort Carson. As he put it: “Social change has come about . . . through peaceful actions like this.”
How a candidate bounces back from an arrest is telling, and voters deserve a full picture of who might represent them in government.
No one is perfect, but the actions of some candidates ought to give voters more than pause.
