Legal Filings

Legal Filings

Common Cause and Ethics Watch Challenge Weakening Of Issue Committee Disclosure

Yesterday, Colorado Common Cause and Colorado Ethics Watch filed their joint brief in support of their legal challenge to a campaign finance rule adopted by Secretary of State Scott Gessler that raises the registration and reporting threshold for issue committees from $200, as defined in the Colorado Constitution, to $5000.  In addition, the rule eliminates the requirement to disclose any information about the first $5,000 of contributions and expenditures by an issue committee.  The Secretary of State does not have authority to change state law, and therefore Common Cause and Ethics Watch have asked the court to invalidate the Secretary of State’s rule.

Common Cause and Ethics Watch also asked the Court to dismiss the Secretary of State’s counterclaim, in which he asks the Court to declare Colorado’s issue committee definition “unenforceable” as a First Amendment violation if and when Common Cause and Ethics Watch win the case.

“The secretary of State’s filing asks the court to invalidate a part of the constitution he is sworn to uphold,” said Luis Toro, Director of Colorado Ethics Watch. “As an elected official, Scott Gessler is expected to put aside his personal views and defend the Colorado Constitution.  Instead, he has ignored our government’s separation of powers by attempting to use his office to not only enforce the law, but also to legislate as well as interpret the law.”

“With the passage of Amendment 27, Colorado voters overwhelmingly signaled that they wanted full disclosure in political campaigns,” concluded Elena Nunez, Program Director of Colorado Common Cause.  “It is frustrating to see the Secretary of State actively working to undermine the Constitutional provisions he swore to uphold.”