Today might be a bad day for Sen. Evie Hudak (D-Westminster). According to TRACER, the Colorado Secretary of State’s campaign finance website, a complaint was filed against her yesterday charging that her campaign finance reports dated January 17, 2012 and January 31, 2012 are not in compliance due to incomplete occupations and employers of donors who have given in excess of $100.
The complaint cites two specific violations – 1) Hudak’s failure to disclose to the Secretary of State the occupation and employer of certain contributors who contributed $100 or more and 2) Hudak’s failure to return contributions of $100 for which her campaign was unable to determine occupation and employer of the contributors.
According to the complaint, the required sanctions are $50 per day that each report was not compliant, which amounts to $8,900 for the first complaint and $8,250 for the second complaint through yesterday. In addition, the complaint is asking that Hudak return $1,250 in contributions for which she was unable to find the employer and occupation.
This mistake could cost Hudak over $18,000, which is almost a quarter of her total campaign funds. Ouch! And, in a tough campaign year too…. But, what’s really interesting is that Hudak should know the occupations and employers of these donors as many are Democratic political operatives and union goons. And, those who aren’t, can be found via Google. Here are just a few examples:
- Jason Bane: Founder and still the public mouthpiece of ColoradoPols
- Karen Kellen: President of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3607 and current Lakewood City Councilmember
- Lynea Hansen: President of Hansen Communications. Interestingly, a group Hansen works with, and is the past president of – the Blue Flower Fund – has repeatedly failed to file campaign finance reports.
- Annalee Schorr: Artist
- Scott Wilensky: Senior VP and General Counsel at Xcel Energy
- Kelly Johnson: According to the Secretary of State’s web site (per other campaigns), she’s either retired or a homemaker. A retired homemaker, maybe?
- Steven Adams: Former Colorado AFL-CIO President & lobbyist registered for the 2012 session
Given the obviousness of the donors above, the question becomes is Evie Hudak trying to hide something or did she simply think offering her constituents transparency wasn't worth the 15 seconds it would take to Google these folks?
Then again, if we had accepted the most union dollars of any State House or Senate candidate this election cycle, it might be tempting to not disclose that we had even more union donations than anyone thought….