Shortly after filing suit to make three Colorado state lawmakers comply with an open-records request, Colorado Ethics Watch has filed a complaint with the Colorado Secretary of State against the Senate Majority Fund LLC (SMF) and the Colorado Leadership Fund LLC (CLF). The two entities sponsored political ads that expressly advocated in favor of particular candidates, which is against Colorado law.
Both entities paid for at least 10 ads that push the envelope of legal activity. The SMF has played loosey-goosey with campaign finance laws in the past. It has also been … let’s say less than up-front about its spending. As such, Colorado Ethics Watch is seeking maximum penalties against them. Because penalties are set up to prevent these kinds of actions, SMF and CLF, if guilty, should pay the most severe fines. The Senate Majority Fund has received over $800,000 so far this cycle. Maybe they’d be more respectful of the law if they spent more (or all!) of it paying fines. Republicans have billionaire sugar-daddies by the dozen. How much would they have to pay before they changed their behavior?
