Today, an administrative law judge ruled in favor of Colorado Ethics Watch and imposed a $1000 penalty 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 its failure to report thousands of dollars in campaign spending.

Ethics Watch filed the complaint against SMF in July based on SMF’s failure to report at least $25,000 of television air time for ads supporting state senate candidate Libby Szabo in June 2008. State law requires a political organization like SMF to report any spending that exceeds $20 in any one reporting period and imposes a fine of $50 per day for each day the missing information is past due. In SMF’s case, the maximum penalty was $1250.

At a hearing on the matter, SMF admitted it neglected to disclose the spending but argued that the fine should be fully waived. The judge disagreed and reduced the fine a mere $250 based on the fact that SMF corrected its filing and admitted wrongdoing.

Chantell Taylor, director of Ethics Watch, released the following statement in response:

“Complete disclosure is not just a technicality, it is vital to the integrity of our electoral process. Though the fine may be nominal relative to the amount of money SMF is spending to influence elections, it still holds them accountable for scoffing their obligation to provide transparency and for deceiving voters.”