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Group wants FBI to take over probe

Beauprez campaign accused of illegally accessing data for ad

Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 16, 2006 at midnight

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A liberal group has asked the FBI to take over from the state an investigation into whether Republican Bob Beauprez's campaign illegally accessed a national crime database for attack ad information.

Michael Huttner, director of ProgressNow, said Sunday he believes it is a conflict of interest for the state to handle the probe, in part because Republican Gov. Bill Owens is working hard to help Beauprez succeed him in January.

Beauprez's campaign said it has done nothing wrong.

The investigation currently is being handled by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

"This is the classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse," Huttner said. "This is Beauprezgate."

Owens' spokesman Dan Hopkins said it is ludicrous to suggest that the CBI can't perform the probe.

"The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is a nonpartisan organization, which has a great reputation," Hopkins said.

Huttner noted that the CBI is one of the agencies that reports to Joe Morales, head of the Department of Public Safety. Huttner said Morales has contributed $1,000 to Beauprez's campaign.

The ad in question refers to a specific criminal case involving an immigrant when Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter served as Denver's district attorney.

Ritter maintains that the ad contained information available only from a highly restricted database available only to law enforcement.

"Your campaign broke the law," Ritter told Beauprez during a debate last week.

Beauprez said that wasn't the case, and he accused Ritter of trying to deflect attention from his record of plea-bargaining with illegal immigrants.

The FBI could not be reached for comment.