Markey's Syscom stake cited in videotape

Congressional hopeful Betsy Markey has said she followed ethics advice in 2005 and divested her interest in technology company Syscom Services when she went to work for Sen. Ken Salazar in a position that potentially put her in contact with the same federal agencies her company received contracts from. 

But in video of an interview Markey gave Wade Norris for 1510 AM in the Fort Collins area she still claims partial ownership of the firm. Morris posted the interview on his blog Sept. 6, about a week before the Syscom questions surfaced. It appeared on YouTube in February.

"Almost 16 percent of our budget at Syscom Services, which is a company my husband and I own, our budget goes to health care," Markey says. (Statement at 4:20 marker.)

The Markey campaign and Salazar's office have maintained that Markey followed all ethics rules - in this instance laid out in an October 2005 in a letter from the Senate ethics committee - every step of the way. 

Syscom received at least $1.4 million in contracts while she served as a regional director for Salazar, a post in which she acted as a liaison between constituents and the federal agencies with which they had problems. The $1.4 million doesn't include $1.5 million Syscom earned in contracts in 2007 because Markey worked for Salazar for only part of the year. 

The campaign for Republican incumbent Marilyn Musgrave has pointed out that if, in fact, Markey did divest her interest in Syscom to her husband Jim Kelly as she said - then Syscom should have lost its special status as a woman-owned business.

But Syscom officials sought in January 2006 the woman-owned business status at a time when Markey worked in Salazar's office, according to the company's contract with the General Services Administration.

The status allowed Syscom to be listed on the GSA Web site federal agencies use to shop for contractors among other disadvantaged businesses. 

The Markey campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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