I usually think of plagiarism as something that brings down journalists. But I guess that’s old fashioned thinking: Candidates for Governor of Colorado can get caught doing it too.
In a late afternoon blog post, the Denver Post reports that numerous portions of essays ‘written’ by former Rep. and now gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis (R) appear to have been lifted more or less in their entirety from essays written years ago by a guy named Gregory Hobbs, who is now a Justice on the state Supreme Court. Bad guy to plagiarize, right?
(The Post is apparently going to publish a much more detailed account of the case in its Tuesday edition.)
Adding to the story, these weren’t just some essays on water policy that McInnis dashed off in his spare time or on a lark. He was paid $300,000 by an outfit called the Hasan Foundation for the articles as well as appearances he made when he was working for the foundation back in 2005-2006. This was right after McInnis retired from Congress in 2004.
In any case, the lifting is apparently so egregious that McInnis’s campaign isn’t even contesting the charge. While McInnis himself is refusing to comment, his campaign is blaming the plagiarism on a researcher who allegedly worked with McInnis on the articles, a guy by the name of Rolly Fischer — despite the fact that Fischer’s name appears nowhere on the publications.
So which parts of the essays were put together by Fischer? The ones that were plagiarized, says McInnis campaign spokesman Sean Duffy. “It should’ve been attributed properly and it was not,” Duffy told the Post. “(McInnis) relied on (Fischer’s) research and expertise.”
