Denver mayoral candidate Leslie Harod was 300 days late filing her personal financial disclosures, claimed she didn’t get any of the eight delinquency letters warning her fines were mounting, and then asked the $15,000 fine be dismissed.
And so it was.
By the time Harod got around to actually filing her disclosure less than two weeks before the November election, she asked for the waiver the same day and the Secretary of State’s office kindly reduced it to only $50.
There was no favoritism at all, the radically politicized office under Secretary Jena Griswold claimed with a straight face.
The waiver was granted in accordance with their rules, the spokesperson said, as it was the only delinquency in the last 24 months for Herod.
But this isn’t the first time in her three terms Herod has failed to file her financial disclosures, or received a fine she’s refused to pay.
Jimmy Sengenberger revealed in the Denver Gazette that Herod has a history of delinquency when it comes to revealing her personal finances:
After Herod announced her first House reelection bid in February 2017, she quickly went delinquent in filing her PFD. When her campaign requested a penalty waiver, Herod’s fine totaled $200. A waiver was granted on June 15, 2018 because it was her first offense, and she only was assessed $50.
Oddly, Herod didn’t pay that $50 until April 26 of this year — nearly four years after the waiver was originally granted. Meanwhile, her campaign was also already $6,050 in the hole for her second failure to file another PFD in December 2021, this time for her latest House campaign.
Without a hint of irony or remorse, Herod told Denverite:
“It’s important to have transparency in our financial disclosures, the people who we represent do wanna know if there’s any conflicts in our reports,” she said. “Of course, I do not have any. My reports haven’t changed much as a public servant, you know, we sacrifice a lot to be in these positions.”
So there you have it. She sacrifices a lot, so just shut up and stop asking questions.
And what did her personal financial disclosure finally reveal?
We don’t know.
Griswold’s office does not make those reports available to the public online, and Google can’t find where the media has bothered to obtain Herod’s and report on it.