A Democratic group that spent thousands of dollars backing a since-failed tax proposal supported by Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) will soon disclose its donors and pay a fine as part of a settlement over campaign finance law violations, according to documents.
Boldly Forward Colorado, a group that, as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, is not required to report its donors to the IRS, agreed with state investigators to pay a more than $18,000 fine and submit paperwork listing its contributors in 2023, a settlement agreement stated. Boldly Forward Colorado is legally allowed to fund ballot measures, but the $350,000 it spent in 2023 supporting Proposition HH was determined to be above a certain threshold permitted by a 501(c)(4), meaning it should have registered as an issue committee and publicized its fundraising and expenses, state officials said.
“This case is just the latest example of the department working for Coloradans to promote transparency and ensure issue committees disclose their donors to the people of Colorado,” Jack Todd, a spokesman for Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said in a statement.
“This settlement is in line with previous campaign and political finance settlements and is the largest the department has ever obtained under the current statute,” Todd said.
The state-level revelation illustrates how dark money groups often engage in shadowy spending maneuvers that sometimes skirt federal law and, broadly, could raise transparency issues. Another big spender supporting the failed proposition in Colorado was Sixteen Thirty Fund, a group managed by the Arabella Advisors dark money network in Washington, D.C., that the Washington Examiner reported Thursday is connected to an operation targeting House Republicans in states through grassroots-sounding pop-up groups.
“Tactics like this from fake grassroots groups are the reason voters are fed up with a political system that’s overly nationalized, in the pocket of big-moneyed elites, and fails to address issues that their voters care about,” CEO Jeff Clements of American Promise, a group that advocates limiting certain spending in elections, said on Thursday of the Sixteen Thirty Fund-backed operation.
Boldly Forward Colorado has a tab on its website listing its “esteemed donors,” but the tab does not list amounts for these organizations. Some include the Vail Resorts Employee PAC, Advanced Technology, America Works, and the Vail Corporation.
Boldly Forward Colorado’s revenue in the fiscal year ending in 2021 was $112,500, though its revenue in the following tax period was less than $50,000, meaning it filed something called a Form 990-N (e-Postcard) for smaller organizations.
“We supported Prop. HH openly and transparently by contributing disclosed contributions to that ballot initiative, at the time we believed we were meeting all filing requirements,” Amber Miller, a spokeswoman for Boldly Forward Colorado, told CPR News.
“Once we received this complaint, we moved expeditiously to work with the Secretary of State to remedy and are now working with them on next steps,” Miller said.
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The settlement comes after the conservative Public Trust Institute nonprofit group filed a January complaint against Boldly Forward Colorado arguing that it should file as an issue committee.
The conservative group previously filed a complaint that led to Colorado’s ethics commission conceding that Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) skirted Colorado’s gift ban for public officials.