It’s okay for us all to go shopping at Walmart and the grocery stores, but John Hickenlooper’s lawyer thinks it’s not safe to allow the public to attend state Ethics Committee hearings that will determine if the former governor violated ethics rules when he was in office.
Of course, we’re not surprised. Hickenlooper faces Andrew Romanoff in the Democrats’ U.S. Senate primary next month, and the last thing the career politician needs is his dirty laundry aired while voters are casting ballots.
Unite for Colorado has released an ad demanding a public hearing be held when Hickenlooper faces the Ethics Commission.
The group is also circulating this petition demanding the hearings be public.
The hearing was originally scheduled for April 28 but was delayed until May. No word on the new date.
It’s understandable the hearing’s been delayed, but the Ethics Committee has a solemn duty to complete its investigation and make a determination before voters decide on June 30 they want to put Hickenlooper back into public office, this time for a six-year term.
And the public has a right to attend that hearing.