Denver - The Democratic State Party has requested a joint criminal investigation of the Colorado GOP concerning its publication of false information about Rep. Morgan Carroll (D) - Aurora.

Bob Martinez, the chair of the Republican State Party, issued a press release taking credit for automated phone calls by a woman named "Gladys." House Majority Leader Alice Madden believes both the release and the taped phone messages contained blatantly false information about Rep. Carroll, whose House District is coveted by the Republicans.

"Negative ads are one thing, but it is a crime to knowingly publish false information about a candidate," stated Rep. Madden (D) – Boulder, referring to Colo. Revised Statute section 1-13-109, "We know the Republicans are desperate to regain their majority in the House but they don't get to break the law." The GOP is running a recent transplant from Texas, a lawyer named Brian Boney, to run against Carroll in 2006.

"While the First Amendment tolerates a great deal of character assassination of public officials, there comes a point where lies are so overt, so unfounded and so willful that they can actually risk criminal liability," said Madden.

The allegations were reported to District Attorney Carol Chambers of the 18th Judicial District, which includes Aurora. A preliminary investigation began Thursday. The automated calls were made to voters in Aurora and may have been generated by an out-of-state call center. GOP headquarters lie in Denver so a joint investigation may be needed. At Chambers' suggestion, Madden also reported the crime to Mitch Morrissey, the District Attorney for Denver.

"This is not only an unfounded attack against Rep. Carroll, the greater harm is actually done to the public who is fed deceitful and inaccurate information, merely for partisan political gain." said Pat Waak, chair of the Democratic State Party, "If the Colorado GOP thinks it can knowingly lie to manipulate elections, they better think again. Coloradoans deserve better than this."