On Tuesday, Colorado's Democrat Governor Bill Ritter threw former campaign manager Greg Kolomitz under the bus after being forced to admit his campaign committee and inaugural committee danced a little too close, apparently committing embezzlement and fraud to the tune of almost $300,000.
"Greg was the signer on the account," Ritter said, "and all of the checks in question relating to the campaign expenses and the overpayment were all checks that he wrote and that he signed."
Ritter, a former lobbyist at a high profile Denver law firm, expressed "disappointment" in his former aide, refusing to shoulder any responsibility for the deceit, which the governor apparently knew about several months ago.
"The financial discrepancies were discovered as the inaugural committee's accountant prepared tax records in February.
"The firm reported that $217,164 in campaign expenses were paid with inaugural money and that Greg Kolomitz, Ritter's campaign manager and the head of his inaugural committee, overpaid himself $83,250."
At issue is how closely Ritter was involved in the decision to make the illegal transfer. GIven the Ritter campaign's propensity to take hundreds of thousands of dollars of questionable small donor committee transfers from unions, the news that inaugural funds were used in roughly the same manner should come as no shock.
In the face of over $250,000 in outstanding campaign debt, Ritter pushed forward with a portentous inaugural costing over $1 million. In his own words, "The people of this state were very excited about the fact that I'd been elected..."
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