The national conservative advocacy group that brought in former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey of Texas to kick off its campaign against suspending TABOR tax refunds violated Colorado election law right out of the gate.
State law requires that such groups register as soon as they spend $200 or more to support or oppose ballot questions such as Referendums C and D.
But FreedomWorks officials, who already have spent more than that in their campaign against Referendum C, are only now preparing their paperwork for the secretary of state’s office, said Molly Byrne, FreedomWorks vice president for campaigns.
The group’s failure to register before crossing the $200 threshold, punishable by a fine of $50 per day, was accidental, Byrne said.
“It’s very clear who we are,” she said. “It’s not like we’re hiding, people. It was an oversight, I guess, by our attorney.”
The idea behind the constitutional requirement for disclosure is to let people know who is telling them how they should vote, said Dana Williams, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Donetta Davidson.
“This is kind of our philosophy at the secretary of state’s office: That it’s always better to file,” Williams said. “It’s always better to overreport than underreport, because it really does prevent any thoughts of impropriety.”
So far, FreedomWorks has produced campaign bumper stickers, T-shirts, yard signs and pamphlets. It recently hired a Colorado coordinator. And it has created a Vote No campaign website. On Tuesday, it flew in Armey and a handful of staffers to kick off its campaign with a rally at the Capitol.
FreedomWorks was told incorrectly by an attorney “several months ago” that it did not need to register, Byrne said.
The FreedomWorks-created committee is registering under the name “No on Ref C,” Byrne said, making it the third so- called issue committee to record its intent to participate in the campaign. It joins fellow travelers in the opposition at “Vote No; It’s Your Dough” and the lone proponent committee so far, “Vote Yes on C & D.”
The two-question proposal that voters will consider calls for a five-year suspension of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and adds flexibility to TABOR’s tax controls to adjust for recessions.
Proponent campaign spokeswoman Katy Atkinson said that her coalition is deciding whether to file an official complaint about the FreedomWorks lapse.
“It doesn’t take a lawyer to read that law,” she said. “Their people in Colorado should have known. But it just goes to show that they don’t know how we do things here.”
Once registered, issue committees must report their financial contributions monthly, and then twice a month as Election Day nears, Williams said.
“When they file with us, they will tell us when they became an issue committee, and that would (be defined by) whatever day they spent $200,” she said. “That would be the date that we would start fining them.”
FreedomWorks can ask Davidson for a waiver or a reduction of the fine, she said.
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
