Less than two weeks on the job, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler says the $68,500 a year salary doesn’t pay enough.

That’s why Gessler, a Republican, says he is going to be moonlighting as a lawyer for his old law firm – a firm known for representing clients on elections and campaign law issues, the very areas Gessler is now charged with policing as secretary of state.

Gessler, 45, says he’ll be working about 20 hours a month for the firm, now called Hackstaff Law Group and formerly known as Hackstaff Gessler. The news was first reported by The Denver Business Journal on Friday.

Gessler said he’s the sole provider for his wife and 2-year-old daughter as well as his elderly mother.

“It will be well less than half of what I earn as secretary of state,” Gessler said of his part-time work. “This isn’t a huge income source for me, but it’s something I need.

“It’s 20 hours a month. We’re talking five hours a weekend.”

Gessler said he expects to be doing contract law and he won’t be practicing elections or campaign law and won’t advise other Hackstaff lawyers on those matters.

“If they ask me where a file is or something like that, I’m obligated to at least point that out,” he said, “but if they’re asking for a strategy that implicates the Secretary of State’s office, I won’t do that. And they wouldn’t do that, anyway.

But Colorado Common Cause, which advocates for ethical and transparent government, said the arrangement is ripe for a conflict of interest.

“To the extent he is working for his old firm and his old firm is dealing with the Secretary of State’s office, it creates a real conflict,” said Elena Nuñez, program director for Colorado Common Cause. “In some cases it may just be the appearance of conflict.”

Gessler also said he didn’t plan to recuse the Secretary of State’s office from cases involving Hackstaff. He said he would treat his old firm just like any other when it came to the decisions his office makes.

“It’s pretty darn simple,” Gessler said. “I look at what’s best for the state of Colorado. When I represent a client, I represent them to win.”

Nuñez, though, said questions about Gessler’s loyalties and how he spends his time will be unavoidable.

“We’re talking about the chief elections officer for the state,” she said. “Coloradans should be able to trust that his only duty and his only obligation is to making our elections work effectively.”

While Nuñez agreed that state officials, who haven’t had a pay hike since 1998, should get a raise, she said Gessler knew what the pay was before he ran for office.

“What I’m doing is I’m try to square my state service with family obligations,” Gessler responded.

He said critics “don’t understand the burdens of someone like me who has to support my family and support my mother who’s in her 70s.

“If they only want people who are wealthy or who are retired, our states’s going to be in a sorry shape,” Gessler said. “I wish I had a trust like John Hickenlooper does, but I don’t.”

Gessler said he also is looking into some jobs teaching election law or legislative policy.

Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com

This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, the article misquoted how many hours a month Secretary of State Gessler planned to work for his old law firm. Gessler’s estimate is 20 hours a month.