No Campaign Finance Reports for Amendments 60, 61 and Prop 101 Lead to Fines, Then Waivers and Questions

Three initiatives made it onto the 2010 state ballot without their registered agents ever filing a campaign finance report, implausibly indicating that no money was raised or spent in support of the initiatives. The agents said they received advice from a Mr. X, later determined to be Douglas Bruce, father of the TABOR amendment.

The registered agents were Louis Schroeder, Jeff Gross, and Russell Haas of Amendments 60, 61 and Prop 101 respectively. Though each had a co-agent, Administrative Law Judge Robert Spencer determined in June of 2010 that these three men were the primary sponsors, fined each one $2000, and ordered them to submit the overdue campaign finance records. Still, it was more than a year before the first records were filed. Meanwhile the Secretary of State’s office sent repeated notices of ever-increasing fines for not submitting the records.

After racking up over $20,000 each in fines by the fall of 2011, the men finally submitted the finance records, and then requested and were granted waivers by the Secretary of State. In the end, the $20,000+ in fines was reduced to $50. Colorado Public Radio, as part of the State Integrity Investigation, recently questioned the decision to grant the waivers.