Dems, primary foe scold Buck, say he's unfit for office - The Denver Post

Dems, primary foe scold Buck, say he's unfit for office
By Allison Sherry
The Denver Post
Posted: 06/25/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 06/25/2010 10:45:44 AM MDT

Colorado Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Waak and GOP Senate hopeful Jane Norton scolded Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck on Thursday, saying his departure 10 years ago from the U.S. attorney's office shows he is unfit for office.

According to a Denver Post story published Thursday, hundreds of pages of personnel records showed that Buck, now Weld County district attorney, left the federal post shortly after receiving a letter of reprimand from then-U.S. Attorney John Suthers for trash-talking a felony case to defense attorneys.

In addition to a letter of reprimand in Buck's file, he had to take an ethics class after a Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility investigation.

Norton released a statement saying she "didn't need an ethics class to know what's right."

She added: "Ken broke the rules, and the facts speak for themselves."

Waak called for Buck to step down from his post as Weld County DA.

"Ken Buck isn't fit to hold any public office, be it assistant U.S. attorney, Weld County district attorney, or United States senator," Waak said in a statement. "Ken Buck has built a career by bypassing justice and ethics to reward political allies and campaign contributors."

Buck said on a radio show Thursday that he "wanted this story out in the open" because he didn't "want any sort of accusation that I was hiding anything."

Buck added that voters will have to decide whether the issue is important in the GOP Senate primary.

His campaign manager, Walt Klein, called Norton's comments "as reckless as the other negative attacks the campaign has been resorting to since Norton changed her . . . strategy to be all negative all the time."