More than $1.5 million in anonymous money has been funneled into eight Democrat-friendly Colorado political committees over the past 10 months, according to campaign-finance records filed with the secretary of state’s office.
And another 65 or more of these so-called small-donor committees have been raising at least tens of thousands of dollars more from undisclosed contributors.
The anonymous money comes from union dues and individual contributions of $20 or less – the type Republican Secretary of State Gigi Dennis has been accused by Democrats of unfairly trying to eliminate with emergency campaign-finance rules passed last month.
“Unions are pumping huge amounts of unaccountable and involuntary money into the system,” GOP campaign lawyer Scott Gessler said Thursday. “If we’re going to have campaign-finance laws, they should apply equally.”
A group of individual citizens, unions and a state representative have filed suit over the new rules, saying they target traditionally Democratic groups.
“The fact of the matter is that the Republicans tried to use (small-donor) committees, and they got some support but just not very much,” said their attorney, Mark Grueskin.
Dennis said she passed the rules to increase transparency in the election process.
Dennis’ new rules require groups that collect membership dues to get written permission from each member to transfer the dues to a political or small- donor committee. It also requires that political committees “declare, under penalty of perjury,” that they believe all contributions received are from permissible sources, such as legal residents. This also includes contributions received from membership dues.
Contributors to small-donor committees are capped at $50 a person. However, the committee can give 10 times as much to candidate campaigns as individuals can. In other words, a small- donor committee can give $5,000 per election to candidates running for statewide office and $2,000 to other candidates.
Because labor groups, as well as corporations, are prohibited by law from contributing money directly to candidates, many create small-donor committees that often are referred to as the “union loophole” in campaign-finance law.
Republicans in Colorado also use the committees, but they have been less effective in raising and spending money.
Eight of the larger Democratic-leaning small-donor groups in Colorado had raised more than $1.5 million from anonymous sources before the new rules took effect.
SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Colorado’s small-donor committee, which has raised $731,000 since October, received $656,000 in dues from its Washington office in July.
Other groups, such as the Colorado State Conference of Electrical Workers, have collected most of their money from individuals contributing under $20.
Over the past 10 months, those eight groups have contributed money to everyone from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter to state Rep. Gwyn Green, D-Golden. A handful of Republicans also have received donations.
For instance, the electrical workers gave Ritter $10,000 – $5,000 for the primary and $5,000 for the general election. The Jefferson County Small Donor Committee has given Democratic state Reps. Betty Boyd of Lakewood and Debbie Benefield of Arvada $2,000 each, and the Colorado professional firefighters gave $4,000 each to Democratic Sens. Joan Fitz-Gerald of Jefferson County and Jim Isgar of Hesperus.
The new rules affect unions and other traditionally Democratic-leaning groups, prompting a number of Democrats to urge Dennis to either delay implementation of the rules until after the November election or retract them entirely. Some say that enforcing the written authorization from membership groups is too burdensome this close to the election.
Additionally, some have criticized Dennis, a Republican, for making the changes after meeting with two GOP lawyers. Dennis has said politics played no part in her decision.
Pete Maysmith, public-interest group Common Cause’s national director for state campaigns, said small-donor committees are important because they permit more voters to get involved in politics.
“The emphasis is on people, not just a few with big checkbooks,” he said. “But there should be transparency so we can tell who is supporting whom.”
Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com.
