E-mails obtained by Colorado Ethics Watch through a Colorado Open Records Act request show that Secretary of State Mike Coffman aggressively lobbied media outlets to minimize his wrongdoing and instead write negative stories about Colorado Ethics Watch. Coffman went so far as to contact a media outlet to discredit Ethics Watch's campaign finance complaint against the Committee to Elect Dr. Jim Geddes for CU Regent, even though Dr. Geddes' campaign committee is subject to Coffman's jurisdiction and the complaint resulted in a fine of $4000 to that committee.

Ethics Watch filed a Colorado Open Records Act request with Secretary Coffman on August 17, 2008, asking for all correspondence over a twelve month period that related to complaints filed by Ethics Watch or its director. Coffman's response shows that on several occasions, he used his official e-mail to contact local media outlets to attack Ethics Watch when Ethics Watch revealed facts about wrongdoing in Coffman's office and, on one occasion, by a campaign committee that Coffman is supposed to regulate in his role as Secretary of State.

Secretary Coffman's CORA response reveals numerous instances in which Coffman attacked Ethics Watch when Ethics Watch exposed facts unfavorable to Coffman or his office:

December 2007. In response to a May 2007 request from Ethics Watch, the State Auditor released a performance audit of the Secretary of State's office. The audit (a pdf copy of which is available here) found that "the Department of State was not adequately ensuring compliance with mandates related to the outside employment and possible conflicts of interest of its staff. Additionally, it appears that management was aware, in at least two of the five instances discussed above, that the employees had outside businesses. However, management did not initiate or verify proper disclosure or approval." A series of e-mails shows that Coffman worked with Secretary of State staff to attempt to spin the audit results as some sort of vindication, only to be rebuked by his own Deputy Secretary of State who pointed out that Coffman's proposed statement on the audit report "is not really accurate." Coffman also sent e-mails to the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News claiming that Ethics Watch had misstated the results of the audit "for their own fundraising purposes" and stating that "[t]he majority of the audit covers the four years prior to my taking the office," which is technically true of the report as a whole, but not of the section that was the subject of Ethics Watch's audit request dealing exclusively with the time period when Coffman was Secretary of State.

March 2008. After Ethics Watch filed a complaint with the Independent Ethics Commission regarding Coffman, Coffman sent an unsolicited e-mail to Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi, entitled "Colorado Ethics Watch, etc.", noting that "there seems to be a plethora of supposedly nonprofit organizations out there whose only purpose seems to be in making highly partisan attacks on Republicans." Harsanyi responded that "[t]he left has utilized these groups far better than the right" and "Republicans need to start their own organizations in this state." Coffman wrote back that "[t]hat would be a great topic for you to expand on." The e-mail exchange can be read here.

April 2008. E-mails obtained by Ethics Watch show that Coffman and his staff spent office time working on a strategy to get the Colorado Statesman to "either skip" a story about the Secretary of State's office "or defend the office." The strategy apparently resulted in an article in the Colorado Statesman and the publication by the Statesman of a letter to the editor by Coffman in which he personally attacked Ethics Watch's director. Also in April, after the Rocky Mountain News reported on Ethics Watch's finding that Coffman had been fundraising for his Congressional campaign during the work day, Coffman wrote reporter Myung Oak Kim to state that "[t]his is just another attack made without merit from this partisan liberal group that only attacks Republicans." Coffman's e-mail to Kim can be read here.

June 2008. After the Boulder Daily Camera reported on Ethics Watch's campaign finance complaint against the Committee to Elect Dr. Jim Geddes for CU Regent for failure to file two required contribution and expenditure report, Coffman sent an apparently unsolicited e-mail to the reporter accusing Ethics Watch of "singling out one candidate when candidates from both parties are often late with their reports." Coffman's e-mail ignored the facts that the Geddes campaign was delinquent on two reports, did not file those reports until Ethics Watch filed its complaint, and was found by Coffman's own office to have been deliquent in filing its reports. Ethics Watch's complaint against the Geddes campaign committee is the only complaint Ethics Watch has filed so far during the 2008 election cycle for non-filing of reports, and resulted in the imposition by an administrative law judge of a $4000 fine.

Ethics Watch Director Chantell Taylor stated "It's hard to say which is more disturbing - that Secretary Coffman and his staff spent public resources trying to convince the media to ignore wrongdoing in his office, or that he contacted a reporter to make excuses for a candidate who violated disclosure laws that Coffman is charged with enforcing and who is running in the same district where Coffman is running for congress."