Not only does Democratic pollster PPP show him behind Secretary of State Scott Gessler, now a new academic study destroys the basis for Gordon’s major campaign theme.
Ken has been behind every goo-goo change in Colorado’s campaign finance system for more than a decade. He, and his closest associates, have repeatedly gone to the ballot to pass contribution limits in the name of reducing “the actuality and appearance of corruption” as the US Supreme Court phrased it.
The results of all this huffing and puffing? Zip, zero, zilch, nada.
Saying “the implied hypothesis that campaign finance reforms are effective tools for combating public corruption has gone essentially untested,” economics professors Adriana Cordis and Jeff Milyo tested that hypothesis. They “find no strong or convincing evidence that state campaign finance reforms reduce public corruption.” To achieve that finding they studied 25 years of ‘public corruption’ cases filed and tried in all fifty states. Talk about detailed consideration of this matter!
It’s bad enough that Gordon’s signature method of “cleaning up politics” simply doesn’t work.
What’s worse is this.
In fact, Gordon created a system that massively benefited his own Democratic Party.
- He made labor unions ten times more powerful than ordinary Colorado citizens.
- A chief associate fronts many shadowy non-candidate spending operations that have taken over our state’s mailboxes and airwaves.
- He created the system that conceals corporate campaigning while ending out-in-the-open corporation giving.
Ken is a smart, smart man. His persona of a gentle milquetoast conceals his steely drive to game politics to advantage the most liberal end of the Democratic Party.
Put him in office, on his track record? Kiss goodbye to fair and open elections.