Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes Monday said all of his campaign expenses are absolutely legitimate. Referring to a complaint filed against his campaign by a Republican activist from Grand Junction, he said, “It is frivolous and it needs to go away.”

Maes said the reason his campaign has paid him $33,135 in mileage reimbursement since October is because when he began campaigning in March, 2009, he paid for most of his mileage out of pocket because the campaign had very little money.

Once the campaign began generating sufficient cash flow last fall, he said, the campaign began reimbursing him retroactively for past expenses. He said Colorado Republican Party attorney Ryan Call told him that he could do that. Call had not returned messages by Tuesday morning.

As the Colorado Independent reported Friday, documents filed with the Secretary of State reveal that, since October, Maes has been paid $33,135 by his campaign for mileage. Since January, the campaign paid him $7,599 for other expenses, and since February, the campaign has paid his daughter Jordan $5,200 to be his assistant. Also since February, Maes has received a flat $5,000 a month for mileage.

Erik Groves, the attorney who filed the complaint with the secretary of state’s office, said the law forbids using money raised today to reimburse a candidate for expenses incurred many months ago.

“He says he’s just paying himself back but these are scary, ridiculous numbers,” said Groves, who filed the complaint on behalf of Christopher Klitzke. “It looks like he is paying himself a salary. We looked at where he has traveled and it doesn’t match up in terms of justifying such high mileage reimbursement.”