Today, Ethics Watch Director Chantell Taylor will testify at a hearing on proposed changes to the Campaign and Political Finance Rules to be held at the office of Secretary of State Bernie Buescher.  Ethics Watch also submitted written comments on the proposed rule changes.

Ethics Watch's comments focused on two proposed changes.  Under existing rules, campaigns can delay reporting contributions received by check for up to ninety days simply by waiting to deposit the check.  Proposed Rule 4.3 seeks to close this reporting loophole by requiring committees to deposit or return to the contributor by the end of a reporting period all checks received as of five days before the end of the period.  Ethics Watch supports this rule change, but advocates further closure of the loophole by extending the rule to persons who have announced an intention to seek public office but who have not yet formed a campaign committee.

Ethics Watch opposes the change to proposed Rule 6.1, which would restrict the secretary of state's ability to investigate possible campaign finance violations where no formal complaint has been filed to only possible violations discovered by the secretary's office in the course of maintaining a campaign finance filing system.  While Ethics Watch agrees with Secretary Buescher that complaints by private groups such as Ethics Watch have an important role to play in enforcing campaign finance laws in Colorado, some laws can only be enforced by the Secretary of State and the proposed rule change could create situations in which the secretary of state's office would be legally required to ignore evidence of campaign finance violations that were discovered other than through the operation of the campaign finance filing system.