Colorado state lawmakers would have to report who is donating to their caucuses and how they are spending that money under a bill brought in the wake of a dark money-funded retreat attended by a group of Democrats.
Senate Bill 108 would require caucuses, committees, clubs and other groups of lawmakers to file monthly reports with nonpartisan legislative staff detailing all money they received, accepted or spent. The reports would then be posted online.
The bill appears to be a peacemaking gesture among Democrats who have been sparring over the October retreat at a hotel in Vail, which was hosted by the Opportunity Caucus and attended by lobbyists. The caucus is made up of more moderate members of the legislature, and more liberal lawmakers see it as an electoral threat because of the caucus’s funding from a group that is heavily involved in Democratic primaries.
Opportunity Caucus Chair Sen. Lindsey Daugherty, D-Arvada, and the caucus’s top House member, Rep. Sean Camacho, D-Denver, who both attended the Vail retreat, are sponsoring the bill. The other main sponsors are Sen. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, and Rep. Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins, who are among the legislature’s more progressive members.
“When the opportunity came to work on a bill on transparency, I jumped on it because I care deeply about transparency, as I know a lot of my colleagues do,” Camacho said. “I think it’s really important that we improve our system where we can, and this is a great way to do it.”
The bill would not be retroactive, so caucuses would not have to report prior donations received. And there would be no enforcement mechanism or penalty for caucuses that don’t comply.
Weissman said he began to develop the bill in October. He doesn’t expect any opposition to the measure given the lawmakers who have come together to sponsor it.
“I am a believer in transparency measures to promote public confidence in public processes,” he said. “It’s just pretty obviously the right thing to do.”
Zokaie said she is excited to be working with the Opportunity Caucus members on the bill.
“There are a lot of corporate groups that have a lot of influence in this building,” Zokaie said. “As a matter of transparency, the public should know: Who are those groups that have that much power, and how much of their resources are they investing here?”
The bill also comes as the Independent Ethics Commission is investigating whether 16 Opportunity Caucus members, including Daugherty and Camacho, violated the state’s gift ban by attending the Vail retreat. Colorado Common Cause, a liberal-leaning nonprofit that advocates for an open government, filed the ethics complaints against the lawmakers.
The lawmakers say the Opportunity Caucus spent $32,000 on the retreat. They argue they didn’t violate the gift ban because donors to the caucus did not pay directly for things like hotel rooms. They also argue the caucus is a state or local government entity and therefore exempt from the gift ban’s requirement that an organization only pay for lawmakers’ reasonable expenses if no more than 5% of its funds come from for-profit groups.
The Opportunity Caucus is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit and does not have to disclose its donors.
In response to questions from The Colorado Sun last year, the Black Democratic Legislative Caucus of Colorado and the Colorado Democratic Latino Caucus, both 501(c)(3) nonprofits, voluntarily shared their donor lists.
Prior donors to the Black Caucus include Colorado Beverage Association, Colorado Restaurant Association, Amazon, Xcel Energy, Brandeberry-McKenna Public Affairs and Sysco. Prior donors to the Latino Caucus include Amazon, Deloitte Consulting, Salesforce, the Colorado Beverage Association, Xcel Energy, DaVita, Sewald Hanfling Public Affairs and the Colorado Hospital Association.
The Opportunity Caucus declined to voluntarily release a list of its donors when asked by The Sun. That makes it what The Sun refers to as a dark money group.
In response to the ethics complaints, caucus members said the group received funds from an individual’s personal trust and One Main Street Colorado, a dark money nonprofit that supports more moderate Democrats in campaigns against more progressive candidates. One Main Street supported the campaigns of some members of the Opportunity Caucus.
Zokaie, a member of the Latino Caucus, said she hopes all caucuses in the legislature will release their prior donors.
“This is not aimed at any one group, but there are groups that have released their donors, there’s groups that haven’t, and I think everybody should,” she said.
Camacho said he hasn’t considered whether the bill should be retroactive.
“This is the first time I’ve thought about that,” he said. “I don’t know. I’d have to look and kind of see where the group’s at.”
The Colorado Constitution prevents most legislation from being retroactive, so any prior donor disclosure would have to happen voluntarily.
The bill hasn’t been scheduled yet for its first hearing. Daugherty will be absent from the legislature for a stretch while she’s on parental leave, and the measure isn’t expected to move forward until she returns some time next month.