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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 fact that they only gave money when he was doing these final rules, that more than ever really raises flags. There’s something fishy going on.”
Rep. Mark Ferrandino, commenting on campaign contributions from payday lending companies to Attorney General John Suthers as Suthers writes regulations to implement a new payday lending law, as reported in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, August 13, 2010

Ethics Watch Complaint Forces Senate Majority Fund To Disclose Nearly $100,000 On Political Ads And Activities

August 4, 2008

The day after Ethics Watch filed a complaint with the Colorado Secretary of State against the Senate Majority Fund LLC (SMF), 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, SMF adjusted its reports to disclose nearly $100,000 in spending on political ads and mailings.

State law requires a political organization like the SMF to report any spending that exceeds $20 in any one reporting period. According to documents obtained by Ethics Watch, in June 2008 SMF purchased more than $70,000 of television air time for ads supporting state senate candidate Libby Szabo. The ad began airing on several Comcast channels on June 25 and is still running. Reports filed by SMF had not disclosed the spending until after Ethics Watch filed its complaint. Now, SMF has reported spending $74,987.00 on the Szabo ad and additionally reported spending $21,307 for "production and postage."

Chantell Taylor, director of Ethics Watch, released the following statement in response: "Thanks to our complaint, the Senate Majority Fund has been forced to disclose nearly $100,000 in spending on political activities. Unfortunately, this is not the first time the Senate Majority Fund, a 527 political organization, has hidden its spending; it has filed numerous adjustments this year for spending that should have been reported months earlier. Senate Majority Fund must be held accountable for scoffing at its obligations to Colorado voters - that is why Ethics Watch will pursue the maximum penalties in this case, which should amount to $1,250."



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