A February 21 editorial in the Rocky Mountain News about the investigation of alleged official misconduct by Jefferson County Commissioner Jim Congrove repeated a pattern noted by Colorado Media Matters of failing to mention Congrove's Republican affiliation. The News has made the same type of omission in past coverage regarding a former Jefferson County treasurer and the district attorney for Colorado's 18th Judicial District, both Republican elected officials accused of or censured for wrongdoing.

As the editorial noted, Congrove, along with former County Attorney Frank Hutfless, has been accused of “initiat[ing] investigations of current and former county employees as well as private citizens.” Additionally, the News stated, a longtime friend of Congrove's allegedly billed the county $7,000 to carry out some of the investigations.

According to Jefferson County's website, “Congrove was elected Jefferson County Commissioner in November 2004 and represents District 1 in the northern part of the county.” The county's alphabetical listing of all county commissioners, past and current, indicates Congrove has been a Republican commissioner since taking office in 2005. The Jefferson County Republican Party also lists Congrove on its website, and a November 3, 2004, Denver Post article (accessed through the Nexis database) reporting on predicted election results stated that “two of three county commission seats were up for grabs. In District 1, Republican Jim Congrove held a lead over Democrat Scott Benefield.”

As Colorado Media Matters noted, the News made the same omission regarding Congrove's Republican affiliation in articles on February 8 and February 16.

From the February 21 Rocky Mountain News editorial, “Calling the CBI: Jeffco DA right to turn probe over to state agency”:

Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey not only did the right thing, but also the sensible thing, in handing off responsibility for looking into the county commissioners' office to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

The CBI's task will be to respond to allegations that county Commissioner Jim Congrove and former County Attorney Frank Hutfless initiated investigations of current and former county employees as well as private citizens.

Some of the investigations were carried out by Daril Cinquanta, a long-time friend of Congrove's, who billed the county more than $7,000 for his services.

Because the county commissioners determine the budget for the DA's office, both Congrove and Storey would have faced a conflict of interest if Storey had attempted to keep matters in-house. The CBI, whose independence is unquestionable, has the resources for a prompt and thorough review of what has happened in Jeffco.

Whether the investigations, or payments, were illegal is in dispute. But if confirmed, some of them would clearly be inappropriate.

[...]

In addition to determining whether taxpayers' money was properly spent, the CBI should also determine exactly who was investigated, by whom, what information was developed and who it was reported to. Cinquanta has said his work did not target county employees, and Congrove denies that anyone was ever hired for that purpose.

But those claims are a little hard to square with the fact that Congrove had enlisted a network of county employees he called “confidential informants” who reported to him on the alleged misdeeds of their colleagues. While he now concedes the term was unfortunate, that's all he concedes. “And I am telling you, the citizens and taxpayers right now, that I will continue to look into allegations of impropriety at the county that are brought to me by county employees.”

Congrove is of course right that such allegations shouldn't be dismissed. But it doesn't follow that he has the responsibility or the authority to investigate them himself, or hire someone to do so, if that's what he did. That's why the county has a personnel system for its more than 3,000 employees, and the system is undermined if employees know that a commissioner is likely to meddle on his own.