Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez’s campaign asked the secretary of state Tuesday to rule whether it is proper for opponent Marc Holtzman to appear in television ads on Referendums C and D funded in part by a $100,000 donation from Holtzman’s father.
“Without action on your part, candidates may use unlimited contributions to promote their candidacies through the guise of issue committees,” Beauprez’s attorney, Scott Gessler, wrote to Secretary of State Gigi Dennis. “This behavior undermines our laws and creates an uneven playing field.”
At issue are ads against November’s ballot proposals to suspend provisions of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Those ads were funded by “If C Wins, You Lose,” a campaign committee that received $100,000 from Holtzman’s father, Seymour, a Pennsylvania businessman. It also received $50,000 from Holtzman’s chief fundraiser, Blair Richardson.
The large donations by people close to Holtzman sparked criticism last week by Beauprez, a Republican congressman, and others that Holtzman was using the ads to skirt state election law, which prohibits donations of more than $1,000 to gubernatorial candidates.
The letter asks Dennis to give an advisory opinion or make an emergency rule, Gessler said.
“From Day One, we reviewed the situation with legal counsel,” Holtzman campaign manager Dick Leggitt said. “We’re very comfortable that what Marc is doing in his effort to defeat Referendum C is well within in the scope and the spirit of Colorado election law.
“If Bob Beauprez is an opponent of Ref. C as he claims, it seems curious that he would be working so hard to stop the only … television commercials fighting to protect the taxpayers.”
Beauprez’s spokesman, John Marshall, said it’s not the message the campaign has a problem with, but the messenger.
“We didn’t ask him to stop the ads; we asked him to pull himself off the ad. There’s a difference,” Marshall said.
Holtzman has closely tied his gubernatorial campaign to the defeat of the budget measures. Referendum C asks voters to forgo an estimated $3.7 billion over five years that they would otherwise get refunded to them under TABOR. Referendum D would allow for $2.1 billion in loans, largely for improvements to roads and schools.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-820-1633 or cfrates@denverpost.com.
