Former Gov. Hickenlooper cited for ethics law violations

Former Gov. John Hickenlooper violated the state’s ethics law, Amendment 41, when he accepted travel and other expenses in two cases in 2018, according to the state’s Independent Ethics Commission.

Hickenlooper is a candidate for the U.S. Senate Democratic primary on June 30. He will face former Democratic Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff of Denver. The winner moves on to challenge Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner of Yuma.

Hickenlooper defied a subpoena issued by the ethics commission on Monday, but which was later enforced by a Denver District Court judge. The former governor missed the first day of the hearing, citing concerns about the use of a “virtual” hearing, held on the Webex platform, which he said would violate his due process rights.

But after the commission voted on June 4 to hold him in contempt for ignoring the subpoena, he showed up the following day, to be questioned by Suzanne Staiert, a former deputy secretary of state who is now the executive director of the Public Trust Institute.

Staiert is running for the Colorado Senate in Centennial and is currently facing a campaign finance complaint for failing to disclose how much she was paid by PTI and other sources in 2019.

PTI was formed in October 2018, two days before its founder, former Republican Speaker of the House Frank McNulty, filed the first of two complaints against Hickenlooper. The complaints stem from an open records request submitted to the governor’s office in March 2018 by America Rising PAC, an organization that conducts opposition research on behalf of Republicans.

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