Watchdog: Special interest group paid legislators’ $25,000 resort bill

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(The Center Square) – A government watchdog group has filed ethics complaints against more than a dozen Democratic legislators in Colorado.

Common Cause alleges the legislators had $25,000 in luxury resort expenses paid for by a special interest group.

Aly Belknap, the executive director of Colorado Common Cause, spoke with The Center Square in an exclusive interview regarding the complaints.

“A lot of dark money flows through all kinds of C4’s — while we find these transactions to be unethical, it's not typically unlawful,” Belknap explained. “What happened here is different. It is a brazen disregard for accepting gifts as a legislator.”

The special interest group in question is One Main Street, a pro-business group. Common Cause alleges it spent that money to pay for approximately 16 legislators — all members of the “Colorado Opportunity Caucus” — to attend a retreat hosted this past summer by One Main Street at a luxury hotel in Vail, Colorado.

Vail is a popular ski resort town in the mountains.

“One Main Street organized a closed-door ‘summit’ for business advocates to ‘educate’ Opportunity Caucus members on issues important to business interests,” one of the complaints stated. “Legislators couldn’t pay the $25,000 cost of their rooms — so they asked One Main Street to pay that bill.”

On top of rooms, Common Cause said One Main Street also funded other expenses for the lawmakers like food and drink funds and even individual travel expenses. 

“Public records show that at least three corporations who fund One Main Street Colorado were the same corporations whose lobbyists were present at the event,” Belknap said. “In essence, the Opportunity Caucus gave corporate lobbyists unethical access to influence legislators in exchange for their money.”

She also explained why it was important to bring the complaints to the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission.

“Ethics and integrity matter, especially when it comes to our lawmakers,” Belknap said. “As the state's long-time ethics watchdog, Common Cause filed these complaints because we can't ignore when special interest groups directly buy things for legislators above the $75 limit set by law.”

Belknap is referring to Amendment 41, which was passed in Colorado in 2006. That amendment requires public officials do not accept gifts worth more than $75.

Common Cause was influential in getting it successfully passed, which it did by a margin of 25 points.

“We believe Amendment 41 was violated,” Belknap said of the alleged misconduct. “We're taking action to defend the law we passed, and voters overwhelmingly approved. We must have the political courage to challenge corruption, no matter who's doing it.”

Common Cause is in the process of releasing all the complaints, which it will do over the next 24 hours. It is asking the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission to investigate the allegations and issue “appropriate remedies,” which would likely just include “robust guidance to legislators about their legal obligations” under Colorado Ethics Laws.

Colorado state Rep. Meghan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs, and Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, who are both members of the Colorado Opportunity Caucus, did not respond to The Center Square’s request for a comment by the time of publication.