DENVER -- Gubernatorial hopeful Bob Beauprez, under fire for using information from a confidential criminal database in an attack ad, once voted to make it harder to abuse that same database.

Beauprez, a Republican, last week said the government employee who leaked secret information about a criminal case did the right thing. And the Denver Post last week reported Beauprez said he didn't even know such a database existed before a recent flap over his attack ad.

But Denver's Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post reported Monday that during his two terms in Congress, Beauprez voted repeatedly for legislation that prominently mentions the database, called the NCIC. One measure Beauprez voted for was even aimed at making it tougher to abuse the database.