For months, authorities pursuing campaign finance complaints have been trying to get anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce to show up and answer questions about who was behind efforts to put three controversial measures on this fall’s ballot.
Twenty-nine times since May 4 they’ve tried to serve Bruce with an order to appear. They’ve sent e-mails and letters and left business cards at his door. Before all of that, a judge subpoenaed him to appear at a deposition. No dice.
Now, the state is contemplating pursuing contempt of court charges against Bruce.
All of this, in our minds, prompts a question for Bruce, who has built a reputation on demanding government be accountable to taxpayers: What are you afraid of?
In an e-mail to Post reporter Tim Hoover, Bruce wrote that he has been out of town. He said he was never properly subpoenaed. He says it’s all a “publicity stunt” to tie his name to the petitions.
We’re not buying it. Bruce should show up and explain himself — and answer the rest of the questions.
If Bruce was involved in getting Amendment 60, Amendment 61 and Proposition 101 on the November ballot, as testimony and evidence thus far indicates, why would he want to avoid being connected to the measures? We surmise it has to do with Bruce’s recognition of his polarizing reputation. Certainly, the man who was the author of the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights would be proud of the way the measures would choke off government revenue, severely limit government issuance of bonds, and reduce a major revenue source for road construction.
Opponents of the measures — mostly major civic and business groups, including the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce — have been analyzing the impact of these measures to determine just how damaging they would be.
Two of the measures could result in state and local government revenue reductions of $4.2 billion, said Dan Hopkins, spokesman for Coloradans for Responsible Reform.
The measures also could result in a big loss of jobs — 46,000 to 52,000, Hopkins told us. Sixty percent would be government jobs, and 40 percent would come from the private sector — primarily transportation and health care. The matter at hand, however, isn’t about the dangerous nature of these measures. There’s plenty of time to discuss that.
This is about the public’s right to know who is behind them. That’s the essence of three complaints filed against the backers of the measures.
State rules require any group trying to put an initiative on the ballot to register as an issue committee after they raise or spend $200. The complaints, filed by Coloradans for Responsible Reform, allege that those who worked to get these measures on the ballot failed to file the necessary disclosures on expenditures and contributions. Bruce is not mentioned in the complaints.
But there is evidence tying him to the efforts. Eight people who gathered signatures to get the measures on the ballot lived in an apartment Bruce owns, according to records cited by the Colorado Springs Gazette.
And a woman listed as a sponsor of one of the measures testified this week that she received detailed advice from Bruce about how to get the matter on the ballot and that he told her not to testify at a hearing regarding this issue.
Bruce should put an end to the games and show up to testify as has been ordered.
