Last August was a busy travel time for state officials. Secretary of State Scott Gessler used his discretionary account to speak at an election law seminar put on by the Republican Lawyers Committee in Florida.
That same month, Governor John Hickenlooper and one of his finance chairs, Ken Gart, hopped on the state plane with their sons to attend the USA Pro Cycling challenge in Durango.
After Fox 31 ran a story exposing Hickenlooper for taking his friends on a state-paid jaunt, the governor and Gart quickly reimbursed the state $1,335, a full ten months after the travel.
Meanwhile, Gessler was slapped with an Independent Ethics Commission investigation and investigated by a Grand Jury. He reimbursed the state $1,300 before he was slapped with another $1,300 in penalties by the Ethics Commission for even using his discretionary account to attend the event. The Grand Jury found no wrongdoing.
The ultimate factor is that the left has the full faith and power of Ethics Watch to crush rising GOP officials and bog them down in months-long investigations and bad publicity. It only paid lip service to the governor’s wrongful spending.
It’s the exact same amount and a similar violation. Yet, Gessler received a financial penalty and months of bad press and editorials. The governor will get a day with one bad story.
Based on the "facts" you've presented here, One big difference is that Secretary Gessler used the funds for a specifically partisan organization. Using public funds directly for one's own political party presents a problem more so than using funds for other purposes…. While using public funds for something that isn't germane to the office is a problem… doing so to further the political party, or another supporter creates a kind of situation….. By kickback, I mean where the supporter of the elected official receives benefits from the elected official. What an elected official does with his or her paycheck is his or her own business. Not so much with Common sense and logic say the expenditure of Secretary Gessler is more offensive. Were Secretary Gessler offering his expertise to a non partisan/bipartisan group, I think his misuse of public funds would be less egregious than what he did. So there is a difference in the expenditures…….
Disgusting Double-Standard!
Of course it is a double standard. The Libs are always right, the Right is never.