Face The State Staff Report
Colorado Ethics Watch, a purported campaign finance “watchdog” and liberal interest group, has filed yet another lawsuit against two GOP campaign committees.
In the new complaint filed last Wednesday with the Secretary of State, the group alleges that two 527 committees violated campaign finance laws when they produced and ran ads that lent supportive approval to Republican candidates for the state legislature.
Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Ethics Watch, is claiming that the Senate Majority Fund and the Colorado Leadership Fund went beyond their intended role of simply educating voters and instead endorsed specific candidates for office.
Political non-profits, 527s, are named after the section of the IRS tax code that governs them. They are committees that can raise unlimited amounts of funds without having to pay taxes, as long as they don’t engage in express advocacy or call for the defeat or election of candidates or causes. The intended purpose of the committees is to educate voters and they are prohibited from coordinating with candidates and candidate committees.
Scott Shires, head of the Senate Majority Fund, says he is not worried about the complaint because he is confident his group has not violated any laws.
When asked about the accusations being leveled at him and his group, Shires immediately questioned Taylor’s motives and sources for writing the complaint.
“It’s groundless, she didn’t write a word of it, it came from the Democratic Party,” Shires said. “She [Taylor] isn’t interested in ethics, she just wants to rattle, confuse, and waste resources of the Republican Party.”
Scott Gessler, attorney for the Senate Majority Fund, questioned Taylor's commitment to clean campaign finance when she has a history of own filing suits against Republicans.
“What CEW is trying to do is use litigation to advance an expansive interpretation of campaign finance regulations,” said Gessler. “This is an effort by a DC group to expand campaign finance laws through the courts, when they've failed in the legislature.”
Shires pointed to the fact that Taylor’s refuses to release Colorado Ethics Watch’s funding sources, yet is constantly calling for transparency among Republicans.
“I don’t see who’s paying her,” he said. “But she’s never found a single violation against any Democrat."
So far this year alone CEW has brought legal action against all Republican leaders at the Capitol, including Attorney General John Suthers, Secretary of State Mike Coffman, Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, and House Minority Whip Cory Gardner. Taylor has gone after no top-ranking Democrats.
The group was quick to clear Gov. Bill Ritter of any wrongdoing with his connection to his campaign manager Greg Kolomitz's alleged misuse of funds. Kolomitz was accused of writing checks to himself out of Ritter's inaugural account, a violation of state election law. Just a day after the news broke CEW issued a press release stating, "The fact that Governor Ritter did the right thing by proactively investigating the misuse of his campaign funds does not abrogate the need for a formal investigation."
The Denver Post editorial board, however, disagrees. On Sunday they rebuked Ritter for declaring the case closed and challenged that "significant questions remain about Ritter's management of money and people that the governor should address."
Taylor also released Colorado Ethics Watch’s “Ethics Roundup” in April, outlining the 10 "most corrupt" Colorado politicians of the year. At the time of the report’s publication, however, it failed to include Sen. Abel Tapia, a Democrat from Pueblo who was under investigation by a Senate Ethics Committee. Tapia was under investigation for suspected misconduct when his engineering firm was awarded contracts with the State Fair.
The report contained six Republicans, two Democrats, two unaffiliated office holders and also gave a "dishonorable mention" to State Board of Education member and GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, Bob Schaffer.
In the past month, there has been a litany of cases that Face the State’s editorial staff has reported on that would seem to warrant Taylor’s watchful eye.
Previously, Taylor ran into trouble after filing a claim found to be frivolous in court. In 2007, she alleged that Colorado Association of Home Builders violated state law by not properly transferring membership dues. Most of the case was found to be frivolous by the court, however, due to a lack of evidence on Colorado Ethics Watch’s part. Taylor was subsequently ordered to pay part of the homebuilders’ legal fees.
Rob Nanfelt, the government relations head for the Association of Home Builders questioned Taylor’s motives and tactics in the case.
“It was a way of trying to prevent us from partaking in the political process,” Nanfelt said. “And they tried to coerce us into giving in before our court date.”
Most recently, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey declined to investigate a case brought by Taylor, despite repeated pleas from Colorado Ethics Watch to reconsider. Morrissey, a Democrat, said his office found no "concrete evidence" of a crime when the group requested an investigation into a website run by Senate Republicans, coloradosenatenews.com.
CEW subsequently filed a suit in Denver district court challenging Morrissey's decision. The court threw the petition out less than two weeks later.