Durham does Denver (and the legislature too)

On Monday night Tom Tancredo took the opening steps in his drive to become US Senator in 2010 by hosting a “social” for various legislators at Strings, an Italian restaurant at 1700 Humbolt Street in Denver, along with lobbyist Steve Durham.

Durham apparently acted as a kind of a host and master of ceremonies.

Invitees included Mike May, Andy McElhany, Nancy Spence, Shawn Mitchell, Dave Shulthies, Tom Wiens, Mike Kopp, Larry Liston and some others whose names the Inside Edge couldn’t confirm. The dinner took place in one of the six private rooms that Strings provides.

At issue here is the inclusion of Steve Durham at the event even if he didn't pick up the check at Strings. Amendment 41 bans "gifts" from lobbyists, including "social" dinners. And Republicans at the legislature have been very picky about strictly implementing Amendment 41. 

Durham only happens to be the biggest Republican lobbyist in the state of Colorado.

Naturally this leaves people with a few questions:

Who paid for the dinner?

What about Amendment 41?

And, finally and most importantly, what the hell were these people thinking?

Republicans in the legislature have been arguing for the strict implementation of Amendment 41 and here they provide an example that looks, at the very least, bad.

We’re not contending that any rules or laws have been violated because frankly we do know if they have been violated. Maybe they invoked some little known federal clause that allows former presidential candidates, like Tancredo, who get less than 1% of the vote to use money-men to recover their political reputation.   

Because we know that Durham is generally an accessory to Republican events because of his ability to pay. In other words, he’s not invited to hang around because of his stunning insight on political strategy and tactics; nope he’s invited to hang around because he’s got the biggest checkbook in town.

Given that Republican legislative types have been trying to take the high ground on this issue, it kind of makes you wonder if anyone in the legislature, Republican or Democrat, even knows what the high ground looks like any more down at the Capitol.