The Denver Post today posted an editorial urging Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Scott McInnis to drop out of the race following revelations that he committed several acts of plagiarism.

“The lifted work, examined in The Denver Post, constitutes inexcusable intellectual thievery. It is so damaging that we believe McInnis ought to drop out of the race,” the editorial states. “Colorado's next governor should be a person of integrity, a trusted hand to lead the state through difficult times.”

The scandal stems from the local Hasan Family Foundation paying McInnis $300,000 during the past two years to give talks on water issues and write “original, monthly articles on the topic,” the
Post reports.

The paper reveiwed the text of the talks and declared: “the plagiarism ... is extensive.”

“McInnis says he hired a consultant to serve as an expert for the writings. Yet the foundation hired McInnis as the expert, and McInnis' work never mentioned the help of anyone else. It was presented as his own.

”The written work he submitted to the foundation included numerous instances of passages that were copied, with few changes, from scholarly work originated by Gregory J. Hobbs, who is now a Colorado Supreme Court justice."

The editorial also noted other questionable activities by McInnis, a former congressman, such as:

- “During his final term in Congress, he paid his wife $37,000 to be his campaign manager -- even though he already had decided he wasn't going to run for re-election. As we said in 2004, the arrangement 'smacks of bad judgment.'”

- “More recently, we were taken aback by McInnis' refusal to release tax forms, even though Colorado's gubernatorial candidates since 1998 routinely have done so.”

- “We've also been puzzled by McInnis' inability -- or refusal, it's difficult to know which -- to provide detail on his philanthropy even though he claims to have been generous to individuals down on their luck.”