Is the Scott McInnis Plagiarism Story going the full Vaughn Ward?
Sources in Colorado Republican circles say it's likely a matter of when, not if, McInnis will exit the race.
"Almost without exception, they think he is done," said one senior Colorado Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly.
"He may be the last one to know it, but he's dead in the water," said another. "It's likely he will resist heavily, but at some point he's got to realize this is a fact of life."
Indeed, the bad headlines keep piling up, including the news that the foundation that paid McInnis to write his now-discredited "musings" on water issues wants their $300K back (which, by our math, adds up to $2,000 per page). McInnis' efforts to deflect the misdeeds to a researcher are being denied, and the he's also being hit with fresh allegations that a 1994 column he published in the Rocky Mountain News (and later recited on the floor of the House) was in part lifted from a column published in the Washington Post six weeks earlier.
Aaron Blake writes that Colorado Republicans are trying to find out what they can do to replace McInnis with someone more acceptable on the gubernatorial ballot. Without knowing anything about Colorado's election law, the major stumbling block would seem to me to be the fact that they're attempting to replace McInnis after the convention (and filing deadline) but before the primary -- where McInnis' only challenger is the broke-assed Don Maes. My guess is that McInnis would have to win the state's August 10th primary and then drop out in order to be replaced, but perhaps the staffers at the Colorado Republican Party will find a more legally definitive answer.
