No Special Prosecutor

Secretary of State Donetta Davidson will not seek a special prosecutor to look into the voter registration fraud here in Colorado.

State GOP attorney Mike Norton claimed Democratic Attorney General Ken Salazar has a conflict of interest in the investigation because he is running for U.S. Senate.

Davidson said there was no evidence of a conflict of interest and that Salazar is actively looked into claims that multiple voter registration forms have been filed under a single voter's name.

She said she saw no reason for Gov. Bill Owens to ask Salazar to step aside.

I'm sure that the Secretary didn't want to open a new front in this battle, one where the Democrats would scream that she was trying to prejudice the Senate race. That's no reason not to do her job, or to let the AG off the hook from doing his. And trying to buy off the baying wolves this way doesn't encourage faith in the system.

Salazar has refused comment on the issue, and the press hasn't been pushing too hard, either. At least a couple of reporters at the press conference the other day were overheard complaining that the Secretary was already trying to shift blame to the AG for the problem of felons registering to vote.

As a candidate for office, he has just about as clear a conflict of interest as an Attorney General can possibly have. He failed to provide so much as an amicus brief in defense of the Secretary in the Common Cause case. The prosecutions of hundreds of illegal registrations have been better-investigated by 9News than by his office.

Salazar has been on the partisan side now of three successive issues - redistricting, ballot rules, and now registration fraud. Let's hope the voters notice this.