‘Dark Money' Group Behind Conservative Ballot Measures Ordered To Pay Fine, Disclose Donors

By Chase Woodruff, Colorado Newsline

December 9, 2021

The Colorado secretary of state’s office has ordered a conservative nonprofit that bankrolled several recent statewide ballot measures to pay a $40,000 fine and disclose the sources of its contributions.

The order, issued on Dec. 8 by the secretary of state’s Elections Division, found that the conservative group Unite for Colorado violated state campaign finance law by failing to register as an issue committee before backing Propositions 116 and 117 in 2020.

“The Deputy Secretary directs Respondent to immediately register and file reports for any contributions and expenditures as required by” state law, reads the order, which was signed by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall.

The order follows a complaint filed in August by Scott Wasserman, president of the progressive Bell Policy Center and a frequent opponent of the conservative ballot measures.

Unite for Colorado was formed in 2019, and has spent approximately $4 million backing three conservative ballot measures, according to campaign-finance disclosures filed with the secretary of state’s office. The campaigns in support of those measures have listed Unite for Colorado as a donor, but as a 501(c)(4), “dark money” nonprofit, the group isn’t itself required under federal law to disclose where its money is coming from.

Through Unite for Colorado, unknown donors were by far the largest contributors to the campaigns in support of Propositions 116 and 117, accounting for $664,000 of the $770,000 raised by the former and $782,000 of the $1.3 million raised by the latter, according to disclosures. Proposition 116 asked voters to lower the state income tax, while Proposition 117 proposed to require future voter approval for any new or increased state fees. Both measures passed.

The group was also the sole donor to a campaign in support of Amendment 78, an unsuccessful 2021 measure to increase oversight of state custodial funds, contributing all of the $1.28 million raised by “The Committee for Spending Transparency.”

“This case presents an important issue in Colorado: may an organization that raises and spends multiple millions of dollars in support of or opposition to several statewide ballot measures, engaging in substantial efforts to persuade citizens what to vote on and how, legally do so without disclosing to the public where the money is coming from or where it is going?” reads the secretary of state’s order.

Colorado’s constitution requires a group to register as an issue committee and disclose its donors if it “has a major purpose of supporting or opposing any ballot issue or ballot question.” Beall’s order concurred with a previous finding by a hearing officer in August that Unite for Colorado had a “major purpose” to support or oppose ballot questions, and rejected the group’s claim that such a standard is unconstitutional.

“Simply put, Respondent has not demonstrated how it is burdened by Colorado’s issue committee requirements,” the order reads.

Unite for Colorado did not respond to a request for comment. Michael Fields, a conservative activist who helped lead several of the ballot issue campaigns backed by the group, wrote on Twitter that the order was “totally political and won’t hold up in the courts.”

The signed order states that Unite for Colorado has 35 days to file an appeal against its decision in District Court.

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