Ray Martinez

The Fort Collins City Council race has taken a turn for the nasty, yet nobody can quite figure out who’s in charge of this stream of vitriol.  The group Fort Collins for Common Sense is ganging up on candidate Ray Martinez, former mayor and Fort Collins Police Services sergeant.  While the group has spent more than $21,000 opposing Martinez, it would appear that nobody is running the campaign.  How is that possible?

According to campaign finance documents, the group is raising money hand over fist; however, the only hired hand appears to be a canvasser.  Hope that guy is a strategist, too.

When the Coloradoan attempted to call the phone number listed on one of the groups anti-Martinez campaign flyers, nobody answered. That phone number apparently just went to an anonymous Google Voice account.

Somebody is doing something, despite the lack of any names on official documents. The group is paying Mad Dog Mail, a direct mail shop out of Florida, to do its literature.

And the biggest donor to Fort Collins Common Sense is the national anti-fracking group, Clean Water Action, which is based out of Michigan. So those claims of being just a local grassroots campaign are out the window.

But, of course, it’s easy to see why Clean Water Action is funding this.  Martinez’s cardinal sin was opposing Fort Collins’ five-year fracking moratorium in 2013, which, by the way, a judge ruled last year was actually illegal.

The finance disclosures for this dirty money are due tomorrow.  Will Fort Collins for Common Sense come clean?  Or, will the group pretend the campaign is just running itself? Campaign finance regulators want to know.