The state’s Independent Ethics Commission will investigate complaints against Democratic lawmakers who attended a weekend retreat with lobbyists in Vail last month paid for, at least in part, by a dark money group.
Commissioners Daniel Wolf, Lori Laske and Cyril Vidergar voted Tuesday in favor of deeming the complaints “nonfrivolous” and allowing them to move forward after discussing them out of public view. Commissioner Sarah Mercer, who chairs the group, recused herself and did not provide a reason for her recusal.
The commission’s executive director Dino Ioannides said via email his office will serve the complaints to the respondents, who will have 30 days to respond after which the commission will conduct an investigation. Then, an investigation report will be provided to the parties and there will be a hearing and a final decision.
The complaints, filed earlier this month by Colorado Common Cause, a liberal-leaning nonprofit that advocates for an open government, allege 16 lawmakers who are members of the Opportunity Caucus violated Colorado’s prohibition on elected officials receiving gifts when they attended a retreat in Vail where they mingled with lobbyists at a ritzy hotel over the Oct. 4 weekend.
The complaints are against Sens. Lindsey Daugherty of Arvada, Marc Snyder of Manitou Springs, Kyle Mullica of Thornton, Judy Amabile of Boulder and Dafna Michaelson Jenet of Commerce City, and Reps. Tisha Mauro of Pueblo, William Lindstedt of Broomfield, Michael Carter of Aurora, Jacque Phillips of Thornton, Meghan Lukens of Steamboat Springs, Matthew Martinez of Monte Vista, Katie Stewart of Durango, Sean Camacho of Denver, Rebekah Stewart of Lakewood, Karen McCormick of Longmont, and Cecelia Espenoza of Denver.
Common Cause also filed a complaint against state Rep. Shannon Bird of Westminster, in connection with the Vail retreat. She didn’t attend the event and has not been a part of the caucus’ leadership since August, but Common Cause alleges that Bird, as a founding chair of the group, helped organize the retreat.
Bird, who is running for Congress in the 8th Congressional District, has already filed a motion to dismiss with the commission asking commissioners to reconsider their ruling that the complaint against her is “nonfrivolous.”
In a statement, Eve Zhurbinskiy, Bird’s congressional campaign manager, called the complaint “as false as it is absurd.”
“Shannon Bird was not at the event in question, she was not Chair of the Caucus, and she, quite literally, had nothing to do with it,” Zhurbinskiy’s statement said.
Daugherty, current chair of the Opportunity Caucus, said she was preparing a comment in response to the commission’s decision.
The Colorado Sun first reported that a group of Democratic state lawmakers gathered with lobbyists during the Oct. 4 weekend at the Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail for an event organized by the nonprofit Colorado Opportunity Caucus. The caucus is made up of Democratic state representatives and senators who are considered to be among the party’s more moderate wing at the Colorado Capitol.
One Main Street Colorado, another nonprofit that is affiliated with the Colorado Opportunity Caucus, spent $25,000 to cover the cost of a room block for the retreat. One Main Street, which doesn’t disclose its donors and is what The Sun refers to as a dark money group, has spent large sums supporting more moderate candidates in Democratic state legislative primaries.
The Colorado Opportunity Caucus also does not disclose its donors.
The complaints ask the Independent Ethics Commission to investigate if the Democratic lawmakers who attended the retreat violated the state’s gift ban by having their lodging paid for by One Main Street. The complaints also allege One Main Street paid for legislators’ food and beverages. The complaints ask the commission, if it determines that the gift ban was violated, to order that lawmakers who attended the event reimburse or return any gifts they should not have received and that penalties be imposed.
The allegations are filed under Amendment 41 to the Colorado Constitution, approved by voters in 2006. The amendment, known as the gift ban, changed the state constitution to say a lawmaker who is a scheduled speaker or participant at an event is allowed to have a nonprofit organization pay for their “reasonable expenses,” but only if the nonprofit receives less than 5% of its funding from for-profit organizations.
The complaints allege that since One Main Street does not disclose its donors, none of the lawmakers who attended the Vail event could ensure that only 5% of the group’s funding is from for-profit organizations.
Aly Belknap, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, praised the commissioners’ decision Tuesday to investigate the complaints.
“This is a big day,” she said. “Our elected officials are elected to serve their constituents, not special interests, and this is the exact kind of conduct that feeds dissolution and distrust in government and the political process.”
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