NOREEN: Grass-roots, or beneath the radar?
Almost all of the scandals are legal ones.
Sure, a Watergate or a Teapot Dome comes along once in a while. Far more often, our scandals have legal cover, which makes them all the more scandalous.
The scandal du jour involves the way petitions were gathered in Colorado Springs last year for Issue 300, voted on locally, and for three unsavory initiatives that now grace the state ballot. These sorts of measures typically are revered as the grass-roots voice of the people.
Grass-roots? Subterranean is more like it.
Petition champion Doug Bruce, whose experience sponsoring ballot measures goes way back, provided what you might call a signature safehouse at 633 E. Boulder St. for a group of eight hired guns from out of state.
Bruce paid more than $10,000 for the signatures they got, then his contractors disappeared into the ether. This week, Gazette stories have linked the same petition pistoleros to efforts in other states.
Is it legal to bring in paid circulators? Sure.
As this trend grows, are we in more danger of having our state constitution hijacked by well-financed mercenaries? Absolutely.
Elena Nunez of the nonpartisan Colorado Common Cause said the initiative process “is an important tool for citizens to address issues. We just want the process to work.”
Did Bruce’s signature gatherers live here for 30 days before registering to vote so they could start their work, as is required by law? One has to wonder, but nothing can be proven.
Bruce declined to answer when asked if he charged them rent. Rent receipts could show how long someone lived at the signature safehouse. If there are no receipts, it might show something else.
“If providing them a place to stay was part of their compensation, it would have to be reported,” Nunez said.
Such an arrangement would be what is known as an in-kind campaign contribution, subject to campaign reporting law.
There’s no evidence anyone did anything illegal, but people paid a fee for each signature have an incentive to be, you know, creative, and in the past there have been abuses.
In the early 1980s, an effort to allow casino gaming in Pueblo unraveled when numerous signatures were shown to have been fabricated, involving people and addresses that did not exist.
Early on, Bruce gave the impression he had nothing to do with this year’s statewide ballot measures when clearly, his petition crew was actively involved. Usually, Bruce is anything but shy when it comes to discussing his activities, so his reticence this time seems curious.
No, not a shred of evidence any laws were broken. Just remember, most of the scandals are legal ones.
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