After announcing her candidacy for CU Regent at Large, Madden was offered and accepted a six-figure job at the very university she seeks to govern. Even better for Madden, as she excitedly wrote in an email to Democrat Regent Linda Shoemaker on June 4, the job would pay her a full-time salary while allowing her time off to run her campaign:
“Just accepted Bruce moved quickly (sic). Will work ¾ time so have time to campaign. Dream job for me!!” (Compass emphasis)
Kelly Maher, Executive Director of Compass Colorado, couldn’t help but cry foul on the ethically-challenged arrangement:
“This arrangement is why so few Coloradans have faith in government. Alice Madden, a career bureaucrat whose entire professional existence is predicated on partisan squabbling, landed a plush, six-figure job at the University of Colorado in the middle of her campaign to join the university’s Board of Regents. To accept a generous taxpayer-funded job while simultaneously running to become one’s own boss is a new level of absurdity.
“This isn’t a just conflict of interest – it’s a total scam. Taxpayers and the students who are shouldering record high student loan debt, should demand that Madden choose either her job or her campaign, not both.”
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