The Colorado Observer has a devastating story today on State Rep Joe Miklosi's Congressional campaign, reporting serious staff turnover and a dispute over back pay with his former finance director. That the former finance director, Kirsten Boyd, is the daughter of Miklosi's fellow Democrat legislator State Sen. Betty Boyd, only makes the story more interesting.
Reports The Colorado Observer's Tyler Sandberg:
DENVER – Democratic state Rep. Joe Miklosi’s Congressional campaign has undergone some major staff changes since he announced his bid in July 2011, including a recent change of campaign managers and the departure of a finance director that resulted in a dispute over pay.
In late April, Miklosi, a Denver Democrat, replaced his campaign manager Dean Meinen with Joe Hamill. Meinen was transferred to the position of campaign political director. The previously unreported change comes after other internal turmoil that has left some lingering issues.
Miklosi is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, who is seeking a third two-year term.
Miklosi’s original campaign Finance Director Kirsten Boyd, daughter of State Senator Betty Boyd (D-Lakewood), left the campaign late last year. Boyd is a longtime Democratic operative, whose experience includes working for former State Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and running the fundraising operation for U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff in 2010. Romanoff lost his primary bid to Democrat U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.
Boyd told The Observer last week that she is no longer with the campaign. Because she had not been fully compensated for her work, Boyd said she filed a complaint for back pay with the Department of Labor. Boyd did not say whether the complaint was filed with the federal Department of Labor or the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. [Peak emphasis]
Is Joe Miklosi a deadbeat boss? Why isn't he paying his staff members, especially ones related to his colleagues at the Capitol? Was fundraising so bad that he couldn't even afford to pay the person in charge of raising money for him?
Considering Miklosi is embroiled in a labor dispute, we wonder what the list of labor groups who have donated from special interest Political Action Committees (PACs) to his campaign think about this. Miklosi's first fundraising quarter was marked by a whopping 36% of donations from PACs, most of which were labor unions.
The labor hypocrisy aspect to the story is particularly interesting considering Miklosi's past support for "prompt pay" laws designed to protect employees from being stiffed.
Conservative advocacy group Compass Colorado points out that Miklosi supported legislation — he was a co-sponsor — supporting medical prompt pay in 2010 (see bill here) that Democrat Senator Morgan Carroll said "puts teeth in the medical prompt pay statute."
Compass Colorado has called on Miklosi to "come clean" about the labor dispute.
“This is hypocrisy of the highest order,” said Tyler Q. Houlton, president of Compass Colorado. “Joe Miklosi falsely claims to represent the interests of workers while stiffing his own staffers on the campaign trail.”
As the Complete Colorado headline says, things just aren't getting easier for Joe Miklosi's campaign.