Complaint alleges use of campaign funds violates law

A government watchdog group filed a complaint Monday accusing Senate Republicans of breaking the law by using campaign funds to pay for their official Web site.

The complaint, filed with the governor's office and Denver district attorney, also alleges that a state-paid worker in the Senate GOP office committed official misconduct by grilling a watchdog critic on state time for a story on the GOP site blasting the group as "left-leaning."

"Members of the Senate minority and their staffers have shown callous disregard for Colorado laws and have abused their public positions to advance a purely partisan agenda," said Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government. "Coloradans pay legislators to represent people, not parties."

But Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, called it a baseless complaint by a politically motivated group that refuses to reveal its own contributors.

"They are doing exactly what I would expect a shadowy, secretive, left-wing front group to do when their mask has been ripped off and they've been exposed for who they really are," McElhany said. "If they're for fairness and openness in government, shouldn't they set the example?"

Taylor replied that McElhany was "just trying to distract from the issue that we've raised."

She said CCEG is nonpartisan and that revealing the group's donors would discourage contributions because people give to the nonprofit knowing it is not legally required to disclose donors.

The complaint alleges Senate Republicans violated a 2006 state law barring elected leaders from accepting "a gift of any money" for "defraying any expenses related to the officials' duties."

The complaint also accuses Senate Republican Legislative Initiatives director Dan Njegomir of violating a law barring a public servant from engaging in "unauthorized exercise of his official function" to, in this case, benefit goals of Senate Republicans.

Njegomir scoffed at the claim.

"We are by definition a partisan office. I am a partisan appointee," he said. "I am not going to run away from the fact that I want to see the Republican cause prevail . . . That's what I'm doing here."

The complaint is just the latest salvo in the debate over coloradosenatenews.com, the official Web site of the Senate Republicans' minority party office.

Questions were raised recently after the Rocky Mountain News reported that Republicans used $2,700 in campaign funds to hire a political operative to design the Senate GOP press site staffed by four state-paid employees.