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Colorado Ethics Watch uses high impact legal actions to hold public officials and organizations accountable for unethical activities that undermine the integrity of state and local government.
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"The mayor, the council and elected officials do not want anything printed about them in the press -- especially anything negative."

Debra Krause, former editor of The Weekly Register-Call, commenting on the sale of the newspaper to Black Hawk Mayor David Spellman, as quoted on TheDenverChannel.com, 07/01/2009.

Ethics Watch Sues Senate Majority Fund Over Szabo Ad

Libby Szabo
July 31, 2008

Colorado Ethics Watch filed a complaint with the Colorado Secretary of State against the Senate Majority Fund LLC, a political organization registered with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Colorado Secretary of State as a 527, for failure to report thousands of dollars in campaign spending.

State law requires a political organization like the Senate Majority Fund (SMF) to report any spending that exceeds $20 in any one reporting period. According to documents obtained by Ethics Watch, SMF purchased at least $25,000 of television air time for ads supporting state senate candidate Libby Szabo in June 2008. The ad began airing on several Comcast channels on June 25 and is still running. Reports filed by SMF to date do not disclose spending on the television ad.

If campaign finance laws are properly enforced, SMF would be fined $50 per day for each day the missing information is past due.

Complete disclosure is not just a technicality, it is vital to the integrity of our electoral process,” said Chantell Taylor, Ethics Watch’s director. “By filing this complaint we will hold the Senate Majority Fund accountable for scoffing its obligation to provide transparency and for deceiving voters.”

 



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