A measure to ask voters to repeal the statewide smoking ban is unlikely to hit November’s ballot because the author said he lacks the money needed to gather the required signatures.
Ben Doerflinger said a state panel Wednesday gave him the green light to start gathering the roughly 68,000 valid signatures it takes to put the question on the ballot.
But, he said, he had expected a coalition of bar owners opposed to the ban to pay for the printing of petitions, which runs between $2,000 and $4,000.
Chuck Ford, an organizer of the coalition, said the group would instead use its resources to file a lawsuit to try to stop the ban from going into effect July 1.
Doerflinger said he sent contributors interested in repealing the ban to the coalition thinking they were working together.
“I thought we were a team, and now that they think their lawsuit or injunction is going to kick off, they don’t think they need me anymore,” he said.
Ford said it would cost up to $4 million to run a successful campaign to repeal the measure, which is money the group doesn’t have.
“We’ve got limited resources. Our resources are concentrated on the court case,” Ford said. “Our first objective is to get into court. We’ve raised the money, and we’re going forward with that.”
Doerflinger’s measure was one of more than 20 scheduled to be heard by a title-setting board Wednesday. The panel must approve ballot language before proponents can begin gathering signatures.
Another measure that was approved Wednesday would remove the state’s strict campaign-finance laws and require more frequent online reporting of contributions, said Republican lawyer John Zakhem, a proponent.
He said he is trying to repeal the contribution limits of Amendment 27 because they have driven money underground.
“I don’t think that when Amendment 27 was sold to the people that they understood what the ultimate effect would be in moving accountability away from candidates and parties and into the hands of the unaccountable 527 specter groups,” he said.
Pete Maysmith of Colorado Common Cause helped craft Amendment 27 and said the group opposes the measure because it doesn’t provide full disclosure and eliminates contribution limits.
The title board also approved two Maysmith measures aimed at banning all gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-820-1633 or cfrates@denverpost.com.
