Stephen Scott Emory McInnis[4] (born May 9, 1953) is an American politician and lawyer who was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado from 1993 to 2005.

In August 2010, McInnis lost his bid to become the Republican nominee for Governor of Colorado after a plagiarism accusation and apology hurt his standing.

He served as a police officer in Glenwood Springs, worked as a hospital director, and started a law practice in Colorado.

[5] McInnis is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and is an honorary adviser for the National Student Leadership Conference.

[5] Following the Chandra Levy investigation, McInnis "proposed that the House of Representatives adopt strict rules prohibiting members from having romantic or sexual relationships with interns they supervise.

[15] After being regarded as the early Republican frontrunner in Colorado's 2008 U.S. Senate election, McInnis decided not to enter the race, citing family reasons.

Although he stated that he was not planning to seek the Senate seat, he did indicate some interest in challenging incumbent Bill Ritter for Colorado's top executive office.

He was paid $300,000 to do speaking engagements and "research and write a monthly article on water issues that can be distributed to media and organizations as well as be available on the Internet."

Teresa Fishman, director of the Center for Academic Integrity at Clemson University, reviewed McInnis's work and called several of the parts a clear case of plagiarism.

[20] In a televised interview with KMGH-TV investigative reporter John Ferrugia, McInnis was asked several times who actually wrote the articles and he would not give a definitive answer.

"[21] The 82-year-old Fischer subsequently told KMGH-TV investigative reporter John Ferrugia he had not known the articles were to be published; had not known McInnis had a foundation grant; had been paid a few hundred dollars for each article; had considered them private communications; and had been asked by the McInnis campaign as the story broke in July 2010 to sign a letter apologizing for his, Fischer's, failure to provide attribution.

Speaking only for himself, he said he was "deeply disappointed by the quantity and quality of McInnis's work, [having among other things] ... expected it would be a full- or substantial-time job.

Fischer alone chose to import large sections of text previously written by the Honorable Justice Gregory Hobbs into one of the articles drafted for Mr. McInnis, without credit citation,' states the results of the investigation.

"[26] Additionally, as it turns out, in 2005, McInnis did disclose his retention of a research assistant to Ms. Hasan in writing, contrary to the Foundation's representation in its press release in 2010.

"[26] "Jennifer Raiffie, who served as Tom Tancredo's communications director when he entered last year's gubernatorial race as a third-party conservative candidate, ... believes McInnis has now been publicly exonerated.

... Tancredo entered the race [after the plagiarism allegations were made against McInnis] because he felt conservatives had lost a viable candidate.