Blog note, Politics

Tancredo calls for Kelley resignation after no ‘panel’ documents produced

Timeline Background:

On January 9, this blog broke emails showing U.S. Senator Mark Udall’s office had extensive contacts and conversations with the Colorado Department of Insurance (DOI) regarding the department’s calculation of 249,199 cancelled insurance plans.

On Friday, January 10, State Representative and U.S. Senate candidate Amy Stephens called on the Department of Regulatory Agencies (The parent agency of the Division of Insurance) to conduct an investigation into whether Udall and his staffers may have “exerted inappropriate and undue pressure on the Colorado Division of Insurance.”

January 14, Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) chief Barbara Kelley said, “A neutral and objective panel from the executive director’s office interviewed a number of Division of Insurance staff, collected and reviewed e-mails and other correspondence between the (division) and Sen. Udall’s staff…” and found no intimidation or coercion.

January 17, The Colorado Observer filed a Colorado Open Records Request asking for various documentation related to the “neutral and objective panel.”

January 24, The Observer reported that DORA essentially responded by saying they had no documentation regarding the panel and its activities.  (For clarification, DORA did supply emails, but those were the same emails already  obtained by CompleteColorado.com in the course of the first report.)

In the wake of this revelation, that DORA could not even supply so much as the panel’s agenda, minute meetings or interview notes, gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo called for Barbara Kelley’s resignation.  The press release from Tancredo’s team is reprinted in full:

Today, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo called for the resignation of Barbara Kelley, the Executive Director of the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA).

News outlets reported yesterday that Kelley, appointed to her post by Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-Denver), failed to provide any information on a “neutral and objective panel” that his administration claimed to have convened to investigate allegations that Democrat U.S. Senator Mark Udall pressured Colorado regulators to lower estimates of how many Coloradans have lost their health insurance thanks to Obamacare.

“The Hickenlooper Administration’s pattern of deception on this scandal is extremely troubling,” said Tancredo. “It suggests that the governor’s primary focus throughout this scandal has always been the political interest of protecting a fellow liberal Democrat.”

“The public deserves accountability and they deserve answers, and that starts with removing Barbara Kelley from her position, and allowing a bipartisan legislative committee open access to all of the records related to Senator Udall’s efforts to influence regulators to conceal the very real and negative consequences ObamaCare is having on Colorado,” added Tancredo. “That is the only way to ensure a thorough, and truly ‘neutral and objective’ investigation of what really happened.”

“This political cover-up is unacceptable,” concluded Tancredo. “Colorado deserves a governor who is serious about integrity and transparency – not an absentee leader who lets political appointees sweep serious ethical violations under the rug behind closed doors.”

Over 330,000 Coloradans have received health care plan cancellations thus far due to ObamaCare.

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