UPDATE: Despite the fact that the group has clearly spent money and advocated on this issue, the letter of the law is that they don’t have to file until they start collecting signatures, as we noted below.  That said, we maintain that they’re following the letter, not the spirit, of the law.

Campaign finance reports were due earlier this week.  While we’ve covered some of the candidates’ fundraising, we had hoped also to cover the reports of Local Control Colorado and Coloradans for Local Control – the anti-fracking groups.  Imagine our surprise when we hustled over to TRACER, the campaign finance portal with the Secretary of State’s office, and found nothing on either group.  Not even a committee filed.  See example below.

Technically, Local Control Colorado and Coloradans for Local Control don’t have to file anything with the Secretary of State’s office until they are advocating for or against something. But, let’s be honest here.  To say that Rep. Jared Polis, the funder behind Coloradans for Local Control, and Rick Ridder, spokesperson for Local Control Colorado, have not been advocating is crazy.  The groups have clearly already spent a ton of money on ballot initiatives.  For example, the group created an ad last month.  And, a simple Google search shows Ridder commenting publicly on local control issues as well as promising Steyer money.

We’re not saying that they’re in violation of campaign finance rules, but…. ok, actually, yeah, we’re saying that.