Torres denies intentional wrong-doing, cites inexperience

The Colorado Secretary of State's office leveled a number of fines last week against Las Animas County Commissioner Ken Torres, the Colorado House of Representatives District 64 Republican Party candidate.

According to the Secretary of State's office the most up-to-date info on fines for Torres has it at $1,950. That's $400 for accepting excessive contributions and $1,550 for accepting contributions prior to forming an campaign contribution committee.

Torres' campaign has filed an appeal with the secretary of state's office, the outcome of which was unknown at press time. Torres placed the blame for the fines on his inexperience with state-level politics.

"This is all new to me...this is all new information," Torres said in an interview last week. "There were some mistakes made, honest mistakes that will be corrected."

The Colorado Independent reported the illegal donation to Torres came from the Las Animas County Republican Women's Club, a political organization registered with the secretary of state's office as being based in Conifer, a small town west of Denver. The $1,000 donated by the group was more than double the $400 donation limit set by state law.

"We took a contribution through the Republican Women's Party, which they said was a violation, which was new to me," Torres said. "This campaign stuff is all new to me."

He added, "We returned the check," going on to clarify that the returning had occurred Aug. 4, well within the 30-day limit for returns.

Senior Counsel for Colorado Ethics Watch Luis Toro voiced a conditional approval of Torres returning the funds. "We're glad he did the right thing, but they should have recognized in the first place that was an excessive contribution that they shouldn't have accepted," Toro said.

Torres asserted that steps were being taken to ensure a lack of repeat violations in the future. "They (the Republican Party) are supposed to give me a campaign manager of finance," he said, though the position had not been assigned by press time.

Toro explained some of the other violations Torres was accused of by the secretary of state's office, including one for starting his campaign committee late. "When you start a campaign, then you have your official campaign committee that accepts donations for you," Toro said. "(Torres) didn't do that, so he got fined for that, and if you miss your deadline for that, it's a $50 a day fine."

Toro clarified, however, that there was no fine for the excessive donation. "There was a letter saying you have to return the excessive contribution in 30 days, and we at Colorado Ethics Watch called on him to do that," he said.

"Me as a new candidate, I'm trying to figure it out," Torres said. "It's a different level when you go state level versus local level."

"He's already an elected official, so really, he should know these things," Toro said. "Any elected official should be familiar with the campaign finance laws. Ignorance is not an excuse for anyone."

Toro added, "In the case of Ken Torres, it's even less of an excuse. He's already an elected official, so he'd have, we would hope, this experience dealing with campaign finance."

Torres's opponent in the race for the District 64 seat, Wes McKinley, has also fallen afoul of campaign fundraising laws. As reported by Colorado Ethics Watch, McKinley has accumulated $6,200 in fines.

Ryan Call, legal counsel for the Colorado Republican Party, dismissed the importance of the campaign law violations in the overall picture of the campaign. "These issues of whether the candidate filed the reports a day late or (if the state) imposed a $50 fine for failure to fill out the paperwork correctly is not something the voters care about," he said. "What the voters care about is, is Ken Torres the best representative to represent this district in the state house?" For the full story, please visit http://www.trinidad-times.com/main.asp?SectionID=14&SubSectionID=151&Articl...