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Critic of GOP Web site questions 'partisan' call

Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 12, 2007 at midnight

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A critic of the Senate Republican Web site is asking whether a state employee broke any rules by calling on state time Wednesday to grill the critic about her political bias.

"What's alarming to me is clearly, he is in his official state role making partisan inquiries," said Chantell Taylor, head of the watchdog group, Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government. "That is not what state resources are supposed to be used for. This is not advancing the public interest."

But Republicans fired back that they were just defending themselves against unfair attacks from Taylor's liberal group masquerading as a government watchdog.

"I think we have a right to talk to people who attack us publicly," said Senate Minority Leader McElhany, R-Colorado Springs. "Especially when they're portrayed as some government watchdog group, when in reality, they're a left-leaning hit organization."

But the GOP counterattack kept alive debate over the official Senate Republican Web site - ColoradoSenateNews.com.

Republicans have been taking heat for two weeks after using campaign funds to hire a political operative to build the site. They later pulled Brad Jones' name as "Host" of their site after he made headlines by exposing a powerful House Democrat's inflammatory e-mail on Jones' personal blog.

The outing of the e-mail forced Rep. Mike Merrifield to give up his House Education Committee chairmanship.

Then in Wednesday's Rocky Mountain News, Taylor accused Republicans of misleading the public about their Web site's political nature with the official-sounding "Colorado Senate News" title and display of the Colorado state seal.

She also questioned the GOP's practice of having state-paid workers run a Web site created with GOP campaign money.

Soon, she got a call from Dan Njegomir, the state-paid Senate Republican director for legislative initiatives.

He asked Taylor if she had worked for organized labor, was a licensed Colorado attorney or if CCEG was funded by multimillionaires Tim Gill, George Soros or Jared Polis - all well-known for backing liberal and Democratic causes. Then he posted a story titled "Left-leaning ethics 'watchdog' refuses to reveal funding sources" on ColoradoSenate News.com.

Taylor and an official at CCEG's Washington, D.C., parent group said their nonprofit status does not require them to publicly identify donors. Taylor also offered examples where CCEG and its Washington affiliate have criticized Democratic lawmakers for ethical lapses.

Njegomir said his interview with Taylor in no way violated a Capitol ban on using legislative resources, including equipment, supplies and staff, "for political or campaign purposes." He said the ban is against electioneering or lobbying on state time.

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