If the funders of the lefty-driven Building a Better Colorado think they’ve stumbled onto something original, they better think again. A quick Google search for the group’s website this week yielded some surprising results.

Namely, that their agenda looks shockingly similar to something proposed by ex-bureaucrat Reeves Brown in 2010. Brown is one of the many names that have cropped up in org charts for Building a Better Colorado, and now we know why. He pitched a nearly identical project back in 2010 that also aimed to use the current ballot process to restrict future ballot access: CivicEngagementSummaryStatewide. As we’ve previously pointed out, it’s pretty messed up to make a bunch of changes to the constitution and then shut the door behind you by making hard for anyone else to ever get anything on the ballot.

Fun side note: Brown is perhaps best remembered for carrying on a romantic relationship with his executive assistant that resulted in disciplinary action while he was the head of the Department of Local Affairs for Gov. Hickenlooper in 2013.   gill foundation copy

But we digress. Also on the first page of Google results for “Building a Better Colorado” was messaging from the Gill Foundation for how they are building a better Colorado too! Mega-donor and “Gang of Four” member Tim Gill might not have anything to do with Building a Better Colorado, as he doesn’t appear in any of their documents, but it sure is ironic how closely this new group is piggybacking on his foundation’s message.

Ultimately, these easy to find blasts from the past only serve to further remind us that this new effort is, in fact, nothing new at all.