( – promoted by Colorado Pols)
For the second time, a Denver District Court Judge has ruled that Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler cannot proceed with new state standards from his office that drastically loosen the requirements for reporting spending and contributions by political committees.
On Sept.4th, Judge J. Eric Elliff denied the secretary of state’s request to let him implement the overturned rules while he appeals the lower court’s decision.
“Chalk up one more for average Coloradans,” said David Paladino, a first-time political candidate running in state Senate district 27 (Centennial) who took a considerable risk by joining several grassroots organizations in a lawsuit to stop the new rules from taking effect. The suit has been combined with a similar one filed by Colorado Ethics Watch and Colorado Common Cause.
Adds Paladino: “It’s another win for common citizens. Despite Scott Gessler’s efforts, for now, more political money won’t flow undisclosed across our state and totally out of public view. The public has a need and a right to know who is putting money into political campaigns and just how it’s being spent.”
Judge Elliff said disclosure of political spending is too important and Gessler’s arguments presented “nothing new or different” to convince him that he would win on appeal. He called the request to stay his earlier ruling “contrary to the public interest.” .
On August 10th, Elliff determined that Gessler couldn’t alter the constitutional and statutory rules that determine when and how political campaigns and committees must publicly report finances. It’s now likely that political committees, issue committees and 527’s, or independent expenditure groups, will have to continue meeting past reporting requirements that are stricter than those Gessler wanted to them to follow.
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Good for this judge. The more information the better. If a person is happy to put money behind a political viewpoint, why would they be afraid for people to know about it?
And lord knows I am sick to death of getting these stupid 527 mailers and having no way of contacting them to tell them “take me off your damn mailing list!” It is about the only type of junk mail I have been unable to stop (business can be contacted and told to stop mailing you…but not these political hack groups–Dem and Rep alike). Maybe now we can actually find out who is funding these things and contact them (one can hope anyway).
And if you want to show him some thanks by donating to his campaign, here’s where you can do it. He is running a surprisingly competitive campaign in Centennial. As a recent retiree, he is spending a huge amount of time knocking on doors. http://www.paladinoforsenate.c…
. . . what good are any laws, or rules, or in this case, reporting requirements, if there isn’t any enforcement? Gessler’s done nothing if he hasn’t already clearly signaled to the cheaters on his team that he will enforce these requirements — wink, wink — to the letter of the law. The law-abiding will abide, and the scofflaws will get a fifty dollar fine after months and months of not complying.
So, yeah, this is a moral victory and it shows that the courts can’t abide Gessler’s nonsense, but as long as Gessler’s the sheriff in this town, it’ll be a time that this town needs a new sheriff.
Gessler is interested in making the rules more lax, but absent that he’s in town to make sure that “offenders” get reduced fines and his presence at their next fundraiser to offset them.