Wayne New, one of five candidates running for City Council to represent central Denver’s District 10, says his campaign “overlooked” a couple campaign finance rules by not printing disclosures on campaign signs or listing the spending on his finance reports.
The possible violations were called out this week by a left-leaning watchdog group. Colorado Ethics Watch on Wednesday asked the Denver Elections Division to determine if New violated finance rules for four large campaign signs he’s had up since at least early February. They’re blown-up versions of his yard signs.
Denver City Council District 10 boundaries for the 2015 election.
None of them had a required printed disclosure saying “Paid for by Wayne New for City Council.” And New’s recent finance report for February doesn’t list any expenditures or in-kind contributions related to the creation of the signs.
New says his campaign reimbursed a supporter who owns a Paradise Cleaners location and paid about $400 for the creation of the signs. His finance report should have listed that reimbursement as an expenditure, he said, and it erred in not putting the campaign disclosure on the signs themselves.
He said his mailers, door hangers and ads also have omitted the disclosure that his campaign paid for them, also by mistake.
“My whole team overlooked it, which now is pretty obvious that it should have been done. It is being corrected,” New wrote in an e-mail to The Denver Post.
So far, New is the only Denver municipal candidate to have been called out by Ethics Watch. New of Republicans Mitt Romney and John McCain and to the Republican National Committee, but it’s unclear whether his political leanings were a factor in the interest by Ethics Watch, which has tended to challenge activities by Republicans more often than Democrats. I’ve asked the group’s spokeswoman about this and will update this post if I hear back.
New, asked by an opponent during a forum this week about his donations to the Republican candidates and about the 2016 presidential race, said those shouldn’t matter because Denver’s elections are non-partisan.
Peg Perl, senior counsel for Colorado Ethics Watch, said in the group’s news release Wednesday that New’s transgressions were important to call out.
“Timely and accurate reporting of in-kind contributions and expenditures is vital to ensure Denver voters have information about the candidates running for City Council,” Perl said. “Denver voters also have the right to know who is paying for public communications advocating for candidates with the proper disclaimers on those advertisements.”
In the May 5 election, New Chris Chiari, Anna Jones, Travis Leiker and Chris Cornell Wedor for an open council seat. New is a former president of the Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association. He’s been in the race the longest of any current candidate and , but others were closing the gap.
