Today, Secretary of State Bernie Buescher announced the adoption of revised campaign finance rules.  Included in the rules is new Rule 4.25, which prohibits committees from reporting lump sum payments to credit card companies instead of reporting expenditures made by credit card, and which clarifies reporting requirements regarding reimbursement payments to candidates or third parties.  Ethics Watch supported the rule change.

Today, the House Ethics Committee voted to dismiss the ethics complaint filed by Ethics Watch against Rep. Steve King (R-HD-54), but also voted to send a letter outlining their concerns regarding Rep. King’s conduct. 

Yesterday, Ethics Watch filed a supplemental brief in a case that promises to shed the state’s first light on the effect of Citizens United v. FEC on Colorado campaign finance law.

Today, Ethics Watch submitted to Secretary of State Bernie Buescher comments in support of a proposed campaign finance rule that would require campaigns to provide detailed disclosures of expenditures that were paid for by the candidate, third parties or by credit card and later reimbursed by the campaign. Secretary Buescher's proposed rule would end the practice of reporting only the reimbursement or credit card payment and not the underlying expenditure that was being reimbursed. If adopted, the new rule will increase transparency of campaign spending.

Today, the Colorado House Ethics Committee met to begin its inquiry into whether Rep. Steve King requested mileage reimbursement for travel expenses that were actually paid for with campaign committee funds while certifying to the House that he actually incurred his claimed mileage expenses and that those expenses had not been reimbursed by any other source. The committee has been charged to determine by February 18 whether probable cause exists to find an ethics violation. Ethics Watch looks forward to a complete investigation of the facts in this matter.

John Tomasic (The Colorado Independent) - Colorado Springs Gazette writer Eileen Welsome reported yesterday that non-resident professional petition circulators worked in Colorado last year to land three tax-slashing initiatives on the November ballot. Welsome tracked the circulators to controversial anti-government figure Doug Bruce. She wrote that they stayed in a house owned by Bruce and that they had worked for similar initiatives in Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska. As Colorado Ethics Watch Director Luis Toro told the Colorado Independent, the revelations “bode pretty well” for the plaintiff fighting the initiatives who have brought a lawsuit alleging the proponents violated state disclosure laws by failing to report donors.

We won’t be silenced.

The Colorado Attorney Regulation Counsel summarily dismissed former Sen. Andy McElhany’s complaint against Chantell Taylor, former director of Colorado Ethics Watch, last week. The attorney regulation counsel required no response from Ms. Taylor to make that determination.  

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in a 5-4 vote, that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend money on commercials to support or oppose candidates for public office. Ethics Watch Director Luis Toro said, "Today’s decision is a disaster for those who oppose excessive corporate influence on our elections. It would be naïve, however, for anyone involved in elections to interpret this ruling as the end of campaign finance regulation in Colorado. Eight Supreme Court justices agreed that corporations can be required to disclose their spending and include a disclaimer stating who is responsible for a campaign ad. Strong enforcement of these requirements is more important now than ever. At Ethics Watch, we remain committed to protecting Coloradans' right to know who is spending money to influence elections and to defending the system from the corrupting influence of special interests."

Today, Ethics Watch filed a complaint with Rep. Terrance Carroll, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, asking the House to investigate Rep. Steve King (R-HD 54) and determine whether he received payment from the State of Colorado for travel expenses that were actually paid by his campaign committee.

Ethics Watch today released its list of the Top Five Ethics Scandals of 2009 based on a busy year of watching, researching and litigating in many of these circumstances.

Yesterday, the Denver District Court ruled in favor of Colorado Ethics Watch on a claim against the IEC for violation of the Open Meetings Act.

Yesterday, District Court Judge Norman Haglund ruled that the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) must pay Colorado Ethics Watch $10,332.02 for attorneys fees it incurred in a successful lawsuit against the IEC for violating the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA).

One of the benefits of creating the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) as an independent commission, not subject to control by the governor or the legislature, is that the IEC is not bound by the governor's hiring freeze order. Today, the IEC welcomed its second full-time staff member, and his arrival is cause for hope that the IEC will be able to more effectively investigate complaints in the future.

Colorado Ethics Watch is pleased to announce that Luis Toro, its current senior counsel, will assume the role of director effective January 1, 2010. Ethics Watch’s current director, Chantell Taylor, has accepted the position of general counsel for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Public Interest Network, a national network of public interest advocacy groups.

David O. Williams (The Colorado Independent) - Voters in Colorado care about clean elections and voted through a ballot initiative specifically to enact laws governing campaign finances in 2002. Lawbreakers have been caught and fined. But that’s apparently where enforcement ends. The list of groups violating the law includes an increasing number that simply skirt the fines judges have levied against them. Secretary of State Bernie Buescher now seems determined to go after the deadbeats, but his office told the Colorado Independent that the law, as it stands now, simply lacks teeth.

You might be surprised to learn that, at a time when the state cannot afford to squander a single resource, hundreds of thousands of dollars remain uncollected by the Colorado secretary of state's office for outstanding campaign finance penalties.

Judge Robert L. McGahey, Jr. of the Denver District Court today dismissed a portion of Ethics Watch’s complaint against the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission (“IEC”), challenging the IEC’s advisory opinion that a legislator’s acceptance of a gift of a trip to Turkey would not violate Amendment 41’s gift ban. Judge McGahey accepted the IEC’s position that advisory opinions are not subject to judicial review because they are “neither the issuance of a general regulation nor the determination of particular rights in adjudication.” The ruling means any legislator or other public officer covered by Amendment 41 who seeks an advisory opinion cannot actually rely on the IEC’s opinion and could still be subject to a complaint.

Christopher N. Osher (Denver Post) - Seven petition circulators who worked for a company hired by Denver sheriff's deputies in their bid to ask voters to broaden their arrest powers used "questionable" practices, perhaps forging thousands of signatures, elections officials said Thursday.

Jefferson Dodge (Boulder Weekly) - A regional right-wing advocacy group with connections to Republican political powers in Colorado has taken a keen interest in a hotly contested Longmont City Council race. It has funded, among other things, the controversial phone survey last month about Councilmember Karen Benker, which some have called a “push poll.”