January 31, 2012 06:19 PM UTC

Roybal Fined for Wiechman Loan

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• by: Colorado Pols

We wrote last year about the sad, strange relationship between Lakewood City Councilman Dave Wiechman and then-Ward 3 candidate Pete Roybal. Wiechman contributed around $10,000 – nearly 78% of all funds raised – to Roybal’s ultimately successful campaign for city council in the hopes of finally scoring an ally in Lakewood city government.

Also included among Wiechman’s contributions to Roybal’s campaign was a $2,000 loan in direct violation of Section 3(8) of Article 28 of the Colorado Constitution – Wiechman couldn’t legally loan Roybal any money because only financial institutions are empowered to loan money to candidates.

A complaint regarding the loan was filed with the Office of Administrative Courts which made its final decision on the matter late last month.

Roybal and Wiechman maintained that Wiechman’s “loan” was actually intended as a $2,000 contribution and that Roybal had merely filed an “incorrect committee report.” The complaint against Wiechman – who was represented by Republican Attorney John Zakhem – was dismissed and Wiechman was cleared of any wrongdoing. If nothing else, Wiechman proved that he can afford good legal counsel, although the court did deny his request for attorney’s fees.

Conversely, Roybal was found to have filed an inaccurate committee report and was fined $1,575 – half of the $3,150 amount the administrative court could’ve charged him.  

This was the best possible scenario for Wiechman: he didn’t violate the Colorado Constitution after all, and he still got his buddy Roybal’s vote on City Council.

But Wiechman shouldn’t be so quick to celebrate his victory in the Administrative Law Courts. The Ward 4 councilman has made it no secret that his ambitions stretch to the mayor’s office and beyond, and while a constitutional violation would’ve looked incredibly bad, Wiechman’s still going to have to grapple with the perception of corruption.

As it turns out, Wiechman’s total contributions to Roybal’s campaign ended up being over $20,000. When Wiechman does mount a campaign for higher office, it won’t be hard for his opponents to reference the fact that Wiechman gave 20 grand of his personal wealth to effectively buy an extra vote on city council.

In an era where voters are increasingly upset by the influence of money in politics, it looks really, really bad for a sitting elected official to give $20,000 in order to influence the election of a potential colleague. If Wiechman didn’t realize how bad it looks – or if he did and just didn’t care – that’s evidence enough that city council is about as high as he can ever aspire.