Gessler responds to campaign finance complaint

Denver, June 10, 2011 – Following the complaint filed by Colorado Common Cause and CEW, Secretary of State Scott Gessler released the following statement:

“After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past four years, the state lost on this issue in federal court and paid the opponent’s attorneys fees,” Gessler said. “This latest complaint only adds insult to injury. My goal with the new rule is to help insulate the state from more lawsuits and preserve our limited resources.

“The fact is, if this complaint is successful, the state will be exposed to more lawsuits and we’ll be forced to pay attorney’s fees for each subsequent lawsuit.”

Last year, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the existing $200 threshold for issue committee registration and reporting was unconstitutionally low.  Thus, without a higher threshold, issue committee reporting may be essentially unenforceable.