OUR VIEW: No candidate has been more poorly vetted since Dan Maes.
Police records obtained by Colorado Peak Politics reveal a long and troubling criminal record for 3rd Congressional district candidate and state Representative Sal Pace (D-Pueblo). His criminal rap sheet reveals two arrests for public urination, one for felony burglary and larceny, as well as a bench warrant for failure to appear on his second public urination charge.
- March 12, 2004 Pace was pulled over and charged with driving without a valid license, driving under restraint, driving without proof of insurance, expired license plates and suspended license plates. He pled guilty and was fined for the suspended license plate violation.
- August 15, 2003 Pace was arrested for public urination, his second charge for public urination. He pled guilty.
- August 29, 2003 A warrant was ordered for Pace’s arrest for failure to appear in court on the public urination charge.
- April 20, 1996 Pace was arrested for obscene conduct, which Pace has confirmed was for public urination.
- October 5, 1995 Pace was arrested and jailed for felony burglary in the 3rd degree and larceny, which Pace has said was for attempting to steal from his dorm’s vending machine.
These revelations, barely three months after Pace announced his candidacy for the 3rd Congressional district make Pace the worst vetted candidate since Dan Maes.
It’s one thing to have a criminal rap sheet as a state legislative candidate in a safe district where no one pays much attention to the race.
It’s entirely different to run for Congress in a competitive district with a long and illustrious criminal background that invites comparisons to disgraced New York Congressman Anthony Weiner.
Most conspicuous on Pace’s rap sheet is the news that he’s been arrested for public urination not once, but twice. While a Denver Post story last year noted Pace’s first charge for relieving himself in public, the Peak is the first to report news of a second public urination arrest, which occurred in the summer of 2003.
Pace attempted to explain away his first public pee-pee problem, and his contemporaneous burglary arrest, as brain dead moments as a college student.
Per The Denver Post:
“Both incidents occurred while I was a freshman at Fort Lewis College.”
And he told the Pueblo Chieftain:
“When my two boys are older I will use this experience to show them how mistakes can live with you your entire life,” he said.
Fair enough.
But when Pace was nabbed a second time for dropping trow in public he was no longer a college student, but climbing the Democrats’ partisan political ladder.
In 2002, he was a regional director for the Colorado Democratic Party.
In 2003, he was working with environmental groups to help defeat Referendum A, a ballot initiative that would have allowed the Colorado Water Conservation Board to borrow up to $2 billion for public and private water projects by issuing bonds.
A few months after being nailed a second time, Pace worked for then-state Representative John Salazar as a political aide at the Capitol. Pace would go on to be a top level operative in Salazar’s campaign for the 3rd Congressional district in 2004, and ran his re-election campaign against now-Congressman Scott Tipton in 2006.
Pace’s second arrest for public urination can’t be written off as the misdeeds of a stupid college kid; Pace got nailed with his pants down while he was three rungs up the Democrat political ladder (excuse the mixed metaphors).
The incident didn’t occur on a college campus, but rather right next to the state Capitol on one of the most policed streets in the state.
Pace’s frankly embarrassing record of using sidewalks as urinals is only the start of the House Minority Leader’s long and checkered criminal rap sheet.
His driving record in Denver from 2004 includes charges for driving under restraint, a charge that was later pleaded down to a conviction of driving with suspended license plates. Driving under restraint is driving while knowing you had no legal right to, such as driving with a suspended license. The charge carries with it a mandatory minimum sentence of five days in jail.
While he wasn’t jailed for that offense, Pace did end up in the slammer for felony burglary in the 3rd degree and larceny charges on October 5, 1995. Pace has told The Denver Post the incident was in regards to stealing from his dorm’s vending machine.
At the time, Pace told the school newspaper of his alma mater Fort Lewis College, “The Independent,” that he was “under the influence of alcohol” during this incident. Fort Lewis College placed Pace on probation.
The next year, on April 20, 1996 Pace was arrested for obscene conduct. He was also “under the influence of alcohol” during this incident, according to Pace’s comments to The Independent.
Under college rules, the criminal charges spurred a mandatory disciplinary hearing. Pace was sentenced to 20 hours of community service, probation and was told he must attend alcohol counseling.
At the time Pace was a student Senator, and after his criminal melee he was asked to resign his position in exchange for not being suspended from school.
Vice President of Student Affairs for Fort Lewis College Betty Perry told The Independent that Pace was the only student Senator in school history to go before the Disciplinary Hearing Committee.
Pace tried to fight the dismissal, claiming if he was forced to step down it would stifle student voices.
Fort Lewis College did not buy that specious and hollow argument, and he was forced to resign in November 1996.
All of this adds up to a troubling record for a Congressional candidate in a competitive district. Pace’s past has caused trouble for his political career once before, and these new revelations are likely to add major questions about his candidacy.
HOW many petty offenses has Mommy Francine gotten him out of?
If Tipton's MOM were not the Clerk, Scottypup would still be on her teats. Good thing the old whore has a DAY job.
*Plus, (sometimes)…
So? I'll bet that 1/2 the student body of "The Campus in the Sky" is outdoors pissing on a tree right now. Plus (sometimes), when a guy's gotta go – he has GOT to go… That is all.
better pissing on a sidewalk than pisding on colorado…time to beam you down scotty!
you mean little scotty tipton, tea party ass kisser?
All he needs is a child molestation bust and he be the perfect Socialist Democratic Pol.
He got busted either going to the bathroom outside of a porn shop or a liquor store.
Romantix or Argonaut.
That’s another gem/wrinkle in this story.
Who is this guy? Why is he running for congress? Is he a serious candidate?
That may be appropriate behavior in Pueblo, but not for a United States Congressman.
you’re a D.C. liberal and we are talking about the Constitution.
This came out in a Denver Post story like 2 years ago, when they did a piece on legislators with “colorful” histories. And if I remember right, the legislators profiled came clean themselves.
You haven’t discovered any new information or anything that’s been hidden. And frankly, none of it seems like that big of a deal. A very lazy blog piece.
of alcohol problems and abuse should always be treated as a big deal. We hold public officials to a higher standard because they want to represent us as a whole. Sound judgement and personal responsibility are the two basic qualities all elected officials should uphold, and obliviously alcohol has severely affected them both in the case of Sal Pace.
is far from rare or newsworthy. All of this happened long before Pace entered public life, which is why this comes across as sleazy mudslinging.
in 2003, Pace wasn’t in college. Instead, HE WAS practically pissing on the side of the capitol building where he worked and got caught.
You silly liberal apologist, Sal Pace has a long record of poor alcohol-fueled judgement. I just hope he gets the proper alcohol treatment he really needs. I feel sorry for his family and children.
for that last comment. Don’t bring his family into this, it’s sleazy. And I’m nobody’s apologist, fella. The particular axe I have to grind here is entirely based on my strong distaste for the gratuitous personal attacks that are on display in this blog post and in some of these comments. I hate seeing it on either side of the political aisle and I’m not afraid to call it out.
I think you’ve shed more light today about the character of this blog and its small group of regulars, than you have about Sal Pace.
I’m sorry that your clouded liberal judgement doesn’t allow you to follow the facts of this case since they don’t suit your own liberal outcomes and talking points.
All I meant to say was alcohol-fueled judgments and decisions affect more than just the one person. When a person allows alcohol to dictate their actions, above and beyond the greater good of the people they serve, then it is time to re-evaluate your life with relation to your alcoholic intake and the subsequent interactions.
This is a serious problem that affects many lives and obliviously Sal Pace has made the decision to not learn from his mistakes. That is a shame. It is time for him to take a step back from his own personal ambitions and determine if he is better suited doing something about his oblivious problems with alcohol.
Actually that’s not true.
I count three new pieces of information.
Lynn Bartels did a comprehensive piece on state leg candidates with criminal records. The candidates certainly didn’t give her the information — she dug it up in an investigation.
You can find that article here: http://www.denverpost.com/fron…
Bartels caught only Pace’s college arrests.
This article adds three new things — second public urination arrest, warrant and driving record charge.
I do find it funny that all the commenters, except Mucus, created their account this morning and their only comment is to downplay the Pace bombshell.
Liberal troll fail.
But I’m nobody’s troll. Admittedly I hadn’t ever heard of this blog until this story popped up on a news alert. But I only speak for myself.
I’m glad to see your commitment to ensuring that this is no place for the biased and agenda-driven, though! 🙂
since when are we putting the statute of limitations on 7 years? The Dan Maes employment thing was 25 years old. Thou doth protest too much.
I think that the relevant thing here is not necessarily what he did in college, but the fact that he did it again just shortly before running for the state house. He was a grown up at that point . . . and HONESTLY if you already know that you’ve had a ticket for it once wouldn’t you be extra careful not to do it again when you’re considering a run for public office?
Youthful indiscretions. Digging up 7+ year old mistakes is not reporting. Everyone makes mistakes when they are young, some have the bad luck of getting caught doing it. Just dont think making a big deal about taking a leak outside is worth the bandwidth. When you got to go, you got to go.
It is not a legal court with statute of limitations that matters, but the court of public opinion.
His second arrest shows bad judgment. His failure to appear at the court date for the second arrest shows even worse judgment.
This ain’t gonna play well in Grand Junction.
when you are literally feet away from the front steps of the capitol building where you WORK…
This is huge. Sally’s pee-pee parties might have more to do with a drinking problem than anything else, either way, he might want to re-evaluate his priorities in life. Responsible people don’t let alcohol impact their lives like this without some sort of consequence, casually brushing this aside as a “college indiscretion” is just a bold faced LIE.
He did it in college. Fine. But he did it again years later as an adult across the street from the state Capitol. That’s a serious problem and it does make you wonder what kind of drinking problem he has.
There have been rumors for a while about the trouble Pace’s drinking would cause for his campaign.
I wonder if this is only the first shoe to drop?
the guy got drunk and took a piss when he was in college. None of us ever got drunk and took a piss when we were in college. This is a huge story! Not.
Hey, Peak, are you saying you never got drunk and took a public piss when you were in college?
By the way, you might not want to mention Dan Maes so much. He was your standard-bearer in the last election, remember? Still waiting for you people to demonstrate that you’ve taken any measures to improve your vetting process …