A former co-worker of Dan Maes is speaking out after Maes compared his time as a police officer in a small Kansas town to the film Serpico. While Maes argues that he was fired because he was a threat to powerful officials during the investigation of an alleged gambling ring run from the home of a former girlfriend's parents, 67-year-old Sonny Ralston, a former head of detectives from the Liberal, Kansas, Police Department, tells The Denver Post Maes tipped off the family, bungling the investigation.

"That's the best I can remember," says Ralston, now the chief of police in St. John, Kansas. "You got to remember, it's been a long time."

To which Maes responds, "I would say that's completely untrue based on what I remember."

As the Republican candidate for governor, yesterday Maes again debated Democrat John Hickenlooper, this time during a forum at the Children's Hospital. The two agreed that whoever becomes governor next will be restrained by a difficult budget, writes The Pueblo Chieftain, and will need to use financial partnerships between the public and private sectors to implement recent education reforms.

American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo did not attend the forum but is expected to appear at one today with both Maes and Hickenlooper, notes The Associated Press.