A dark money group that has spent big in Democratic statehouse primaries to help more moderate candidates agreed to pay $25,000 to fund a hotel room block for a recent retreat in Vail where more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers mingled with lobbyists, according to an email reviewed by The Colorado Sun and a person familiar with the matter.
Andrew Short, executive director of the nonprofit, One Main Street Colorado, asked the organization’s board in early September to approve the funds for the Opportunity Caucus event, according to an email obtained by The Sun.
“I just spoke with Sen. Daugherty, Chair of the Caucus,” Short wrote to One Main Street board members Sept. 4, referring to state Sen. Lindsey Daugherty, an Arvada Democrat. “Their room block is at risk if payment isn’t made on time, and they’ve asked OMSC to step in with $25,000 so they don’t lose the reservation.”
The board approved the spending, according to the person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal. But The Sun could not confirm if the funds were ultimately transferred.
The approved spending appears to contradict what Short previously told The Sun about One Main Street’s relationship to the Opportunity Caucus and its weekend retreat, held at the Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail. Short said One Main Street, a nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors, “is not involved in their operations or decision making” and that One Main Street did not host the Vail gathering.
At least 17 Democratic state representatives and senators attended the retreat.
Short, who previously acknowledged that One Main Street helped the Opportunity Caucus start up in January, said in a written statement in response o questions about the $25,000 that his nonprofit supported the Opportunity Caucus “because it shares our values.”
But he said the caucus “is fully independent with its own board and decisions.”
Daugherty did not address the $25,000 when asked about it by The Sun. Eric Tade, who is identified as the president of One Main Street’s board in the email, did not respond to requests for comment, either.
The apparent donation raises more questions about how the Vail retreat, held during the weekend of Oct. 4 and now the subject of infighting among Democrats at the Colorado Capitol, was funded.
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Members of the Opportunity Caucus are considered among the more moderate Democrats in the legislature, and the group’s very existence has riled the party’s liberal wing at the Capitol. Statehouse Democrats who aren’t in the caucus worry the group will try to influence Democratic primaries in the way One Main Street Colorado has.
Some members of the Opportunity Caucus won their seats with the help of One Main Street’s spending.
Short has repeatedly declined requests, including from The Sun, to disclose One Main Street’s donors, which makes it what The Sun refers to as a dark money group. It gave some $800,000 to state super PACs during the 2024 election cycle, much of it to a group with the same name — One Main Street Colorado Independent Expenditure Committee.
The Colorado Opportunity Caucus, which is also a nonprofit, also has declined to release its donors, with Daugherty saying only that funding includes a mix of member dues and money from business and environmental groups, as well as other nonprofits.
Nonprofits are allowed to conceal their donors as long as they adhere to certain rules around their political activity.
State ethics laws
Voters in 2006 approved Amendment 41, known as the gift ban, which changed the state constitution to say a lawmaker who is a scheduled speaker or participant at an event is allowed to have a nonprofit organization pay for their “reasonable expenses,” but only if the nonprofit receives less than 5% of its funding from for-profit organizations.
Daugherty previously told The Sun that the lodging, food and beverage expenses of the lawmakers who attended the retreat were paid for by the caucus. She said the caucus followed all state laws and that the group had an attorney present at the gathering to ensure participants followed Amendment 41.
It’s unclear whether any ethics complaints have been filed regarding the Vail retreat.
Dino Ioannides, executive director of Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission, said the commission has not received any inquiries about the Vail retreat. Complaints are only made public once the commission determines they are “non-frivolous,” and he could not say if any had been filed related to the event.
At least one former member of Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission, which is charged with fielding and investigating complaints under Amendment 41, told The Sun that even if state ethics rules were followed, the retreat appears to have violated the spirit of the policies.
“It sounds like they created these nonprofits as a way to get around the law,” said Jane Feldman, a Democrat who served as executive director of the commission from 2008 to 2014. “If they’re not violating the actual law, they’re violating the spirit of it.”
Feldman questioned why the lawmakers who attended the Vail retreat did not seek guidance from the Independent Ethics Commission on travel expense questions beforehand, something she said lawmakers did routinely during her tenure.
“It seems like they did this as a way to get around the rules rather than comply with them,” she said.
Bernie Buescher, a Democrat and a former Colorado secretary of state, said much of it comes down to optics.
“One person’s compliance is another person’s loophole,” he said. “The constitution is what it is.”
Bill Leone, a Republican who was appointed to terms as a commissioner in 2013 and 2017, said the IEC would routinely issue requests or subpoenas to nonprofits to ensure they complied with the 5% rule.
Cole Wist, a former member of the IEC who served as a Republican state representative from 2016 to early 2019, said events where lawmakers mix with lobbyists are “always tricky.” He said he always tried to be “super careful” about his participation in gatherings hosted by nonprofits because he was suspicious of their intentions.
Wist’s term on the IEC ended in July. He left the Republican Party in 2022 to become unaffiliated.
Independent Ethics Commission’s warning about nonprofit caucuses
In 2010, the IEC issued an advisory opinion at the request of the Colorado Legislative Women’s Caucus saying that it may form a nonprofit to solicit and accept private donations to defray caucus expenses. But it warned the group to tread carefully.
“The commission finds that to avoid an appearance of impropriety, the members of the caucus should also refrain from soliciting contributions from any organization or individual which is either actively supporting proposed legislation or for whom the caucus members are in a position to take direct official action while the General Assembly is in session,” the opinion said. “The commission believes that the appearance of impropriety concerns exist regardless of whether the caucus partners with another nonprofit or creates its own.”
The commission also said in 2010 it worried lawmakers could create nonprofits to abuse and get around Amendment 41 and the state’s campaign finance laws.
The Opportunity Caucus is not the only caucus at the state legislature that operates as a nonprofit. The Colorado Democratic Latino Caucus and Black Democratic Legislative Caucus are also nonprofits that don’t have to disclose their donors.
However, both groups voluntarily released their donor lists when asked by The Sun in the wake of the Opportunity Caucus’ retreat in Vail.
Donors to both caucuses in the past two years include Amazon, Xcel Energy and the Colorado Beverage Association.