Is talk radio forever? When you’re running for office, it might well be. When talk radio muckraker Peter Boyles said this week that GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis had called for a grand jury investigation into the Cory Voorhis affair, he was referring to a March 15 show on which McInnis had appeared.
On that show, Boyles was clearly pushing McInnis to commit to reopening the investigation and McInnis took the bait and ran with it. (Listen here.)
“I think the whole point is that we don’t know the whole story. We need to get to the bottom of this,” McInnis said. “It certainly seems as if people were attempting a cover-up and have not been straightforward.”
McInnis said there had been “outrageous conduct” on the part of Governor Bill Ritter, Denver prosecutor Mitch Morrissey and others. “As governor of the State of Colorado, we will get to the bottom of this,” he pledged.
Specifically, he said he would be looking for perjury, obstruction of justice, and false statements from any number of people involved.
He said that within the first few days of his term as governor, he would sit down with the U.S. Attorney for Colorado and with the Colorado attorney general and tell them that getting to the bottom of this is a top priority with his administration.
“If crimes (were) committed, let’s enforce it to the full extent of the law,” he said.
He said that if the attorney general and U.S. Attorney fail to act, he would appoint a special prosecutor. “If we need to appoint a special prosecutor, the answer is ‘yes,’” he told Boyles.
A few days after the show, Colorado Democratic Chair Pat Waak published a column in The Denver Daily News accusing McInnis of “…pandering to an irrational conspiracy theory…” She also noted that any further investigation would likely be at least as damaging to Republicans as it is to Democrats.
“McInnis knows full well that he is dangerously close to saying and promising things that are beneath the dignity of a duly elected governor and fanning flames of unsubstantiated conspiracy…” she wrote then.
