Fox31 noted that Beauprez “stepped down” as bank's chairman but not that he still has a “controlling interest”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Fox31's Good Day Colorado omitted key information about Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez's controlling interest in Heritage Bank from a report about the controversy surrounding his 2004 vote against restricting the use of Mexican ID cards.

In a report on the August 16, 6 a.m. MT broadcast of KDVR Fox31's Good Day Colorado, co-anchor Shaul Turner omitted key information about the controversy surrounding Rep. Bob Beauprez's (R-Arvada) 2004 vote against restricting the use of Mexican “matricula consular” identification cards -- distributed by Mexican consulates to Mexican nationals -- at U.S. banks. Citing an August 16 Rocky Mountain News article, which “raised the issue of whether Beauprez faced a conflict of interest and voted to protect his own bank” because the bank Beauprez founded now accepts the card, Turner reported, “However, Beauprez stepped down as chairman and CEO of the bank after he was elected to Congress” in 2002. Turner failed to inform viewers that Beauprez's wife, Claudia, serves on the bank's board of directors and that the Beauprezes still own a “controlling interest” in the bank.

From the August 16, 6 a.m. broadcast of KDVR's Fox 31 Good Day Colorado:

TURNER: And at 6:03 this morning, Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez is being criticized because of ID cards used by Mexican nationals, according to the Rocky Mountain News. In the early 1990s, Beauprez founded Heritage Bank. A couple of years later he voted in favor of allowing banks to accept ID cards the Mexican government gives to illegal immigrants. Beauprez's political opponents now say he's after profits and disregarding national security. However, Beauprez stepped down as chairman and CEO of the bank after he was elected to Congress; and that was back in 2002.

As The Denver Post explained in its August 16 article, “In 2004, Rep. Beauprez voted for an amendment that stripped language from a federal appropriations bill that would have prevented the Treasury Department from using taxpayer money to help financial institutions accept the card." The News report noted that "[i]n 2003, the Colorado legislature passed a law forbidding state and local governments from accepting the cards as identification." As the News reported August 16, Beauprez's “Heritage Bank, like many others, accepts the IDs from Mexican citizens who want to open an account or take out a loan.”

The News article cited by Turner noted that John Marshall, Beauprez gubernatorial campaign manager, “said Heritage began accepting the Mexican IDs after Beauprez left the bank.” But in contrast to Turner's Fox31 segment, the News further reported that Beauprez's “wife, Claudia, however, still serves on the bank's board.” The News also quoted Marshall as saying, “Bob has no role (in the bank) other than being a shareholder.” Similarly, the Post noted August 16 that Beauprez “holds a controlling interest” in Heritage Bank.

According to an April 5 Denver Post article on Beauprez's self-disclosed tax return, “The Beauprezes own 23 percent of [Heritage] bank, a controlling interest worth at least $3 million.” The Post article reported that the Beauprezes also disclosed owning “another $1.5 million in bank stock in an individual retirement account” and that "[t]he couple's $264,321 in reported income last year was down from $303,374 in 2004, when Heritage Bank paid shareholders higher-than-usual dividends, Beauprez's campaign says."