Miklosi for Congress campaign consultant Steve Welchert has been caught advising a company looking for bond business to bribe a school district with polling in order to "steal" $90 million of taxpayer funds. The impolitic statement comes from an email unearthed by a Denver Post investigation into potential corruption in school bond campaign finance. 

This idiotic statement comes after a long line of troubles with Rep. Joe Miklosi's Congressional campaign staff. The campaign's former finance director was not paid in full, resulting in a back pay complaint being filed against the campaign. Additionally, Miklosi replaced his campaign manager last month, and the new manager happens to have a record of speaking dismissively about employee compensation complaints. 

And now this. From David Olinger's article:

When Colorado citizens vote to borrow money to build new schools, a library or a recreation center, the crusader behind the curtain is often the investment banker who gets paid to sell the bonds.

…"So I created a piece of direct mail with some burning books on the cover," consultant Steve Welchert recalled in a lawsuit deposition on a matter unrelated to the campaign. "And the campaign committee was a little alarmed, but I said, you know, you only get one bite at the apple. We only had money for one piece of communication."

The burning books worked. "They got the money they needed for their schools and their sprinkler systems, and off they went," Welchert said.

Welchert also sent an e-mail to Piper Jaffray in 2009 that recommended offering a poll or two to the Aurora school district, adding that "it's a very cheap price to pay for stealing 90m." [Peak emphasis]

Not only is this an enormously stupid thing to say about the use of taxpayer money, but it appears to be an example of straight-up, Chicago-style corruption. Welchert appears to be saying the company should bribe a school district with polling with the expectation that the gift of polling be repaid through the contract for a $90 million bond. 

Does Joe Miklosi agree with his consultant's tactics? What does he think about the concept of "stealing" $90 million in taxpayer funds?

Will we see even more Miklosi for Congress staff turnover now?

Since Miklosi is just introducing himself to Aurora voters, we don’t think he’ll want to be associated with someone who was trying to “steal” their school district’s taxpayer funds.