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Delivery to Musgrave office downright disgusting

Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 9, 2006 at midnight

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Talk about your smear campaigns.

If Colorado's 4th Congressional District race gets around to some old-fashioned mudslinging, it'll be a considerable upgrade.

The campaign of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave is howling mad that a supporter of her Democratic challenger, state Rep. Angela Paccione, D-Fort Collins, allegedly shoved dog feces through a mail slot of Musgrave's Greeley office on May 31.

The waste was reportedly folded up in a mailing from Musgrave's congressional office.

The Weld County Democratic Party member and Paccione booster implicated in a Musgrave press release, 63-year-old Kathleen Yvonne Ensz, of Greeley, did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.

Greeley police Sgt. Joe Tymkowych confirmed the incident at Musgrave's Greeley office, 5400 W. 11th St., was investigated by his department.

He said Ensz had been cited for "criminal use of a noxious substance," a Class 3 misdemeanor. She is due to appear in court Aug. 10.

"I, personally have not" issued such a citation, said Tymkowych. "That doesn't mean it hasn't happened. There's a statute for it, and if someone violates that statute, our job is to enforce it."

Musgrave's supporters expressed concern that there is such acrimony with Election Day still months away.

"This is June," said Musgrave spokesman Shaun Kenney. "It's not October or November, and already we're getting poop stuck in our mailbox.

"It's gutter politics. It's disgusting. It's beyond mudslinging. It just does not have any place in politics.."

But James Thompson, a spokesman for the Paccione campaign, said it wasn't any kind of campaigning. He also said Paccione and her staff had no connection to the episode or to the woman who was cited.

"Contrary to claims by Marilyn Musgrave, Angie Paccione's campaign for Congress had nothing to do with the alleged vandalism that occurred at Musgrave's Greeley office last week," Thompson said.

"If it's true, this is a deplorable act," he added. "This woman isn't associated with the campaign, and we don't condone this type of extremism, no matter what party or organization they're affiliated with."

The Musgrave camp identified Ensz as current vice chairwoman of Senate District 13, an elected position within the Weld County Democratic Party.

Ray Peterson, chairman of the county party, said he was unsure if that's true, but if it is, -Ensz could lose any position she currently holds.

"I don't know what her side of the story is," said Peterson. "But we don't condone anything like that at the party and, dear God, there's no way we had any part in it at all.

"I just feel like she's acting as a fed-up citizen who keeps getting campaign pieces in the mail that are supposedly newsletters out of Musgrave's office, paid for by public funds."

Musgrave chief of staff Guy Short said Ensz's identity was learned through various means. She was allegedly recorded committing the act in a video feed from a camera focused on the office's outer door.

Also, although the recipient's mailing address on the flier that was used was partially scratched out, it still bore a nine-digit zip code that narrowed the list of suspects.

Musgrave is completing her second term representing Colorado's heavily Republican 4th District, which covers parts of eastern Colorado, and is seeking re-election to a third two-year term.

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