This time, former Democrat-turned-Independent candidate for HD61, Kathleen Curry, emailed supporters to let them know three separate District Attorneys are investigating the group for using “false information to influence voters.”

Democrats have reason to fear Curry, who has the ability to act as a spoiler in the three-way race with incumbent Democrat Millie Hamner and Republican challenger Debra Irvine. Curry lost by only 300 votes in 2010 when she was a write-in candidate. Add that to the fact that Hamner has struggled to get supporters to even show up at recent rallies, and you begin to understand why the Democrats are going nasty on Kathleen Curry.

From Curry’s email:

If anyone watches Jon Stewart, you might have seen his new segment called “Please, for the love of God, make it stop!…” and some days I feel that is a pretty accurate description of this election cycle. In the last two weeks – the Colorado Accountable Government Alliance Independent Expenditure Committee has spent $122,000 in an effort to discredit me. Their ad campaign is vicious, factually incorrect and personally hurtful. In the political world, this means two things: 1. They are worried about the race.  2. They are worried about getting to 33.

….Oh – I forgot to mention, the three District Attorneys in my house district are in the process of investigating the pac that is paying for the mudslinging – they are breaking the law because they are using false information to influence voters. If you want more information on that please go to my website,www.kathleencurry.org or email me.

The mudslinging coming from the “Colorado Accountable Government Alliance” could come back to bite the Democrats in the event they need Curry’s vote to take the Speaker’s gavel.

A very possible scenario could play out with Democrats and Republicans winning 32 seats in the House, and both parties seeking Curry’s essential 33rd vote (which she references in her email) to take the majority.

Kathleen Curry has a real shot at the seat. Running as a write-in candidate is a nearly impossible task and she came within 300 votes of winning in 2010. Her name will be on the ballot this year. Making matters worse for Democrats, incumbent Millie Hamner was appointed to the position — her name has never been on the ballot before.

Democrats are gambling they can knock down Curry enough to allow Hamner to slip through in the liberal-leaning ski district. Of course, Curry and Hamner could end up splitting Democrats, and Republican challenger Debra Irvine could sneak past them both.

Unless it’s Millie Hamner returned to the Golden Dome in November, Democrat House Minority Leader Mark Ferrandino will have reason to worry about HD61. If we were Kathleen Curry, we wouldn’t want to help the man who green-lighted the attacks against us ascend up the political ranks. Ferrandino better hope his group’s attacks are enough to keep Curry out of favor with the good folks of HD61.

Reports The Examiner:

The House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending invited the Abound Solar CEO and former CEO to testify, along with some Energy Department officials after the company announced it is filing for bankruptcy, despite drawing about $70 million of the $400 million available from the DOE loan guarantee.

The bankruptcy announcement comes after Abound laid off 280 employees in March. The DOE loan guarantee was projected to create 1200 permanent jobs.  

As in the case of Solyndra, which declared bankruptcy last year, a bundler for President Obama’s campaign has a financial stake in the solar company.  

Bohemian Companies, founded by Democratic mega-donor Pat Stryker, invested in Abound Solar in 2008. A year after the investment, but a year before Abound received a loan guarantee, Stryker apparently visited the White House.  “The White House did not confirm that the visitor was the Pat Stryker in question and did not provide details about the meeting,” the Sunlight Foundation reported.

Stryker has still not confirmed publicly that she met with the White House, or what might have been discussed. Now that Congress is investigating the defunct deal, it’s something worth unraveling.

As Todd Shepherd has exhaustively reported, Abound Solar had major problems before they got the loan, leading many to question how political connections helped the ailing company secure the loan.

If Congress is looking for a suggestion of people to subpoena, we might also suggest former one-term Governor Bill Ritter. According to The Denver Post, Ritter "hand delivered two letters of support" for Abound Solar directly to Obama's Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. After Ritter left office, Stryker's Bohemian Companies helped fund a $300,000 salary for Ritter at a new renewable energy center at CSU.

The more that comes out about Abound Solar the more it reeks of pay-to-play. It sure would be nice to put Pat Stryker and Bill Ritter under oath to find out exactly how taxpayers were put in a position to cover a $400 million loan to a politically connected company.  

(Photo Credit: NREL)

But just within the past few days Coloradans have been reminded why having the sunshine is so important. Witness the latest investigative report from 7News' John Ferrugia and Arthur Kane:

In a time of tight budgets, teacher layoffs and increased fees, school districts are still spending money on expensive meals, teacher parties and even gift cards, a CALL7 “You Paid For It” investigation found.

CALL7 Investigators reviewed check registers and credit card databases for the major metro school districts and found thousands of dollars spent on a public relations consultant, gift cards, staff parties and meals at top restaurants. While the totals would never fix the districts' budget deficits, the spending shows that administrators are not cutting potentially wasteful at the time many schools are cutting education resources.

Typical of the genre, the story features a couple “Aha” moments in which local school district administrators have a hard time trying to justify some questionable expenditures. Metro area voters who may have to decide a number of local school tax initiatives this fall might be none the wiser if not for such investigative work.

It's important then to remember that a 2010 law requiring significant online financial transparency from Colorado school districts really made this story possible. A local news agency conceivably could have used the Colorado Open Records Act to uncover some or all of the information featured in the report. However, it would be difficult to generate the “probable cause” needed to spend even more resources and man-hours on an investigation.

The Independence Institute was at the forefront of the call for school spending transparency in 2009 and in 2010. More recently, my former intern Devan Crean and I were able to shine the spotlight on how well (or how poorly) local K-12 agencies were complying with Colorado's Public School Financial Transparency Act. In the immediate aftermath of that report, we heard from several school districts eager to fix their shortcomings.

Let's be clear. The results of neither the 7News investigation nor our 2011 issue paper necessarily indicate some sort of concerted effort among local education agencies to hide their financial activities. Jeffco Public Schools, a district featured in the article for a concerning apparent conflict of interest, actually posted a searchable spending database before the 2010 law was adopted. While transparency may sometimes prevent problems from occurring, in large bureaucracies it often may only help to show the problem is there.

On the other hand, my colleague Amy Oliver has found evidence that indicates why some higher education officials have lobbied this year against transparency legislation. Nine days remain until the end of the legislative session, and HB 1252 finally is scheduled to be heard tomorrow by House Appropriations. The likelihood of both passing the House and speeding through the Senate at this point seems like a daunting challenge.

The fight to preserve and expand government sunshine is ongoing. In spite of setbacks, we need to keep urging Colorado's education transparency train forward to make some more progress. And soon. If you can't defend it, don't spend it!