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OUTSIDERS FUELED ELECTION
$7 MILLION WAS TWICE WHAT CANDIDATES RAISED FOR STATE RACES
Rocky Mountain News - By Burt Hubbard [1/3/2005]
"Outside groups raised more than $7 million to influence key state legislative races this year, more than double what the candidates raised themselves.
The result was a $10 million political slugfest that stuffed mailboxes with fliers, clogged telephone lines with messages and saturated air waves with commercials, many of them negative.
Candidates paid workers to wave signs on street corners, while independent committees paid hundreds to walk neighborhoods delivering campaign literature door-to-door.
"I think after awhile it was overkill," said Bob Bacon, a Democrat who won a tightly contested state Senate seat in Larimer County.
A Rocky Mountain News review of state and federal campaign filings found that:
• Money raised by outside groups totalled about $7.1 million during this year's elections for state House and Senate seats.
• Groups financed by Democrats, mainly four wealthy entrepreneurs, raised close to $4 million.
However, Republican Party-oriented committees made a last-minute rush to close the gap, pouring $1.8 million into state legislative campaigns during the last two weeks of the election season, bringing their total to about $2.9 million.
The rest came from special interest groups.
• Candidates in 20 targeted races - seven Senate and 13 House seats - combined to collect almost $3 million, less than half of the amount raised by the outside groups.
• The most expensive state legislative race was for a House seat on the Western Slope that cost both candidates more than $300,000 combined. The state Senate seat won by Bacon cost almost $300,000.
• Small donor committees, created under campaign finance reform with donation limits 10 times higher than other committees, poured almost $1 million into state legislative races.
More than 80 percent of the money came from union committees favoring Democrats.
When the votes were counted, the Democrats had regained control of both the state House and Senate for the first time since the 1960s.
It was a political year like no other in Colorado, said Al Yates, who helped oversee the Democrats' independent efforts in the state legislative races.
"It was a kind of a new world," said Yates, former president of Colorado State University.
"The approach this time had to be so very, very different."
Others said outside groups diluted candidates' messages.
"Outside groups are twice as likely to direct the message than the party and the candidates," said political consultant and former Republican state legislator Rob Fairbank.
New laws came into play
The November election was the first held under new campaign finance laws approved by voters in 2002.
The new rules required committees and individuals to disclose any independent campaign expenses incurred on behalf of or against a candidate for a state legislative seat within 60 days of the general election.
It's the first time such electioneering expenses by outside groups, called 527s after the section of the tax code regulating them, needed to be publicly disclosed. Campaign-finance law requires the groups to operate independently of the candidates, leaving them beyond the candidates' control.
Filings with the state and the Internal Revenue Service show four committees funded by Democratic Party activists and unions raised $3.8 million, with $3 million used for mailings, telephone banks, door-to- door canvassing and television and radio advertising.
"We had college students, we had some high school students, we had retirees (walking neighborhoods)," said Paul Lhevine, coordinator of one of the four groups, Coalition for a Better Colorado.
The rest of the money paid for administrative expenses such as salaries, consultants and get-out-the- vote efforts.
Four wealthy individuals - Quark founder Tim Gill, heiress Pat Stryker, state Board of Education member Jared Polis and software engineer Rutt Bridges - donated $2.9 million.
Outside Republican groups started slow, but finished with a flurry, according to the filings.
Overall, four committees raised almost $2.9 million, but $1.8 million came in the last 21/2 weeks of the campaign.
The biggest was All Children Matter-Colorado, which got about $1.4 million from an affiliated group, All Children Matter-Virginia. It spent $1.2 million of it in the last couple of weeks. The committee financed mailings, telephone banks and some radio and TV ads on behalf of Republican Party candidates for state legislative seats, said Fairbank, who helped coordinate the campaign.
All Children Matter was founded by former Amway President Richard DeVos and advocates education vouchers and tuition tax credits.
Denver oil executive Alex Cranberg, also an advocate of vouchers and tax credits, donated more than $300,000 to other outside groups on behalf of Republican candidates, the filings show.
Both the Democratic- and Republican-oriented committees concentrated on about 20 key legislative races.
The Democrats came out ahead, taking control of the Senate by 18-17 and the House by 34-31 after winning seven seats from the Republicans.
Pete Maysmith, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, co-sponsor of the campaign reform measure, said the disclosures allow residents for the first time to see where the outside money is coming from.
Past elections included anonymous attack ads.
"This is a real step forward," said Maysmith, who will explore whether limits can be placed on donations to outside groups.
However, Republican strategists said it increased the role of special interests.
"I think it is disappointing because you are wondering if you are hearing from the candidate or you are hearing from a wealthy millionaire," said Mike Ciletti with Phase Line Strategies, which worked with one of the Republican outside groups.
And candidates said some of the advertising by the outside groups was negative and misleading.
For example, the tightly contested and expensive battle for a House seat in Mesa County on the Western Slope saw both candidates battered by negative ads.
The Republican, Shari Bjorklund, said one mailing against her said she wanted to deny mammograms to women.
"That was an absolute lie," said Bjorklund, who lost the race. "I have close friends and family members who have been diagnosed with breast cancer."
Her Democratic Party opponent, Bernie Buescher, said he was described in various mailings by outside groups as a fox guarding a hen house, a slippery pig and a wolf in sheep's clothing.
"We ought to figure out a way to make this the most forthright and honest activity we do, rather than one prone to exaggerations and innuendos," Buescher said.
The race was the state's most expensive for the legislature with candidates raising a combined $311,000. Bjorklund spent more than $100,000, while Buescher, the winner, took out a $20,000 bank loan.
Another new finance measure, small donor committees, also had an impact.
As long as these committees raised all their money from donations of $50 or less, they could give up to $4,000 to state legislative candidates. Other kinds of interest groups are limited to $400 in donations per House and Senate candidate.
The unions, using payroll deductions to raise campaign funds, and Democratic candidates made the most use of the committees.
In all, small donor committees gave almost $1 million to state legislative candidates and party committees with 80 percent coming from unions.
Some Democratic candidates for the state Senate got up to 40 percent of their campaign funds through such donations, according to filings.
Outsiders' influence
• Groups that raised the most money for independent electioneering:
Coalition for a Better Colorado $1.5 million
All Children Matter-Colorado $1.4 million
Alliance for Colorado Families $1.3 million
Americans for Better Government $946,333
Forward Colorado $944,375
Senate Majority Fund $346,525
Alliance for a Better Colorado $190,225
Colorado Club for Growth $100,000
"
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