May 13, 2013 01:30 PM UTC

Post dips toe in (then out) of search to find out who's funding recall campaign targeting Senate President Morse

• 6 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

(The most important part of the story buried once again – Promoted by Colorado Pols)

In a Spot Blog post Sunday, The Denver Post cited a story from Colorado Springs TV station KOAA reporting that organizers of the campaign to recall Senate President John Morse hired Kennedy Enterprises to gather signatures to put the recall question on the ballot.

But the Post's print version of its Morse-recall story, unlike it's Spot Blog post, did not include a reference to Kennedy Enterprises, and it didn't delve at all into the mysterious question of who's funding the Morse recall campaign, even though Post reporter Kurtis Lee quoted one of the anti-Morse campaign's major donors (without informing readers of her donation).

So The Post missed an opportunity to follow up on the query posed by KOAA-TV's Jacqui Henrich in her May 6 story, "The bigger question at hand: who hired Kennedy Enterprises despite their questionable background?"

In his piece for the print edition of the newspaper, Post political reporter Kurtis Lee quoted Laura Carno, who was identified as a "Republican political strategist who runs a political action committee in Colorado Springs and is in staunch support of the recall."

Lee didn't point out that one of Carno's organizations, I Am Created Equal (IACE), donated over $14,ooo in in-kind support to the recall effort. Lee should have informed readers about her donation, what it's being used for, and her views other aspects of the anti-Morse campaign, once considered rag-tag but now infused with real money. 

You'd have to hope The Post would get better answers from Carno than I did when I emailed her last week. Carno did confirm that her 501(c)4 organization donated 14k, but she skirted these questions:

Will you tell me what the IACE’s 14K (in-kind) donation to El Paso Freedom Defense Committee was used for or what it was earmarked for?

Do you know who’s paying for the people to collect signatures to recall Sen. Morse, if it’s true that there are people being paid to do this?

Do you think it’s fair to call the Morse recall effort “grassroots” even though the paid petition drive appears to be led by someone named Tracy Taylor, who’s not from Colorado?

Carno sent me a video link as well as this written response:

"We are raising money for our Morse education campaign the way I Am Created Equal always has — we are asking folks who believe in free markets, free enterprise, and limited government to help. To date, every penny we have raised for this comes from Colorado, just as you would expect from a grassroots group like our own. Rest assured, not one penny has come from Mayor Bloomberg. That much I can promise you."