State says there's enough evidence to investigate Weiser
The Colorado Secretary of State's Office says there's enough evidence to warrant an investigation into Attorney General Phil Weiser's compliance with campaign finance laws.
State law doesn't allow campaign donations to exceed $1,450. The office of Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, issued its determination after reports of the Weiser campaign failing to make refunds for 46 donations that exceeded $1,450. Under state law, any amount beyond $1,450 must be refunded within 10 days, which, according to the complaints against Weiser, was not done.
Weiser, a Democrat, is running against Republican candidate Victor Marx to succeed Democratic Governor Jared Polis, who's termed out.
© Andranik Hakobyan - iStock-1437277148
Following two campaign finance complaints to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office earlier this month against Weiser, the state’s election division on Tuesday issued a notice of initial review. It offered an opportunity for Weiser's gubernatorial campaign to fix problems and come into full compliance by October 6.
Two complaints were filed with the Secretary of State's Office on September 8 and September 10, respectively, by Danielle Neuschwanger, a Colorado Springs area real estate broker, against Weiser. Neuschwanger ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for governor in 2022 and went into the general election as the American Constitution Party candidate. That was year Polis was reelected governor.
Neuschwanger's first complaint identified 18 instances on Colorado’s TRACER website, where campaign contributions are publicly available, that the Weiser campaign did not refund contributors who made donations over the legally allowed amount of $1,450 within 10 days after they were accepted.
The second complaint, which was filed two days later, identified 28 instances where the same allegation applied. Neuschwanger claimed these additional 28 contributions also violated the law.
© iStock / Iskandar Zulkarnaen (2232370432)
The complaints show the TRACER website listing donations as high as $2,392.
The Secretary of State’s Campaign and Political Finance Rules, specifically Rule 10.6 (8 CCR 1505-6), states that once a candidate discovers an excess dollar amount in donation, they must refund the excess amount within 10 days of the receipt, or three days after receiving notification from the filing office, whichever is sooner.
On Tuesday, the Secretary of State’s Election Division released a response that included a notice and opportunity to "cure" or resolve the issue. Weiser’s campaign has until October 6, or 10 business days, to “submit a Notice of Intent to Cure form to the Division and to cure any deficiencies specified in [the] notice or provide other relevant information on how Respondents have cured the alleged violations and substantially complied with the law.”
Jack Todd, the Secretary of State Office’s communications director, told The Center Square Wednesday that the office was unable to comment further about Weiser. Todd also did not specify what the repercussions would be if Weiser’s campaign does not refund the donations exceeding $1,450 by the October 6 deadline.
But Rule 10.6 of the campaign finance rules says an administrative enforcement action could be triggered.
Nate Jackson, Weiser’s campaign spokesperson, told The Center Square that “the campaign takes all its obligations under Colorado law seriously. As noted in the complaint, our campaign has already cured all the alleged violations.”
The Center Square was able to verify on the TRACER website that some contributions were refunded. But they were not refunded within the 10-day period required by Colorado election law, according to the website's data.
“This complaint – filed by a Victor Marx supporter and former Republican candidate for governor – is unserious," Jackson told The Center Square on Wednesday. "Nothing can distract from Marx’s egregious and careless flouting of campaign finance laws — violations so serious that he could face potentially historic, unprecedented fines from the state."
The TRACER website shows Neuschwanger did not make any contributions to Marx's campaign.
Neuschwanger was not available for an interview before the publication of this story.
Marx's campaign emailed The Center Square Wednesday about the Weiser campaign's response to the allegations.
“We are disappointed, though hardly surprised, that Phil Weiser would once again try to sidestep his own conduct by pointing fingers everywhere but the mirror," said Dan McCauley, the Marx campaign's executive assistant.
"Mr. Weiser calls this complaint 'unserious.' That is a curious word choice from a candidate whose campaign just had to 'cure' a stack of campaign finance violations it never should have committed," McCauley said.
The Secretary of State's Office, meanwhile, has said it will make a determination about an allegation made in early August against Marx. The allegation was made by Darcy Schoening, a former director of special initiatives for the Colorado Republican Party. She alleged that across 111 contributors, there were 197 illegal campaign donations.
