Tom Udall and Michael Bennet champion major campaign reform

Last week, New Mexico Senator Tom Udall, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet and five fellow Democratic colleagues, proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would allow Congress to regulate the campaign finance system. Long an advocate of campaign finance reform, Udall seeks to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Citizens United decision, in which the high court ruled it unconstitutional to regulate the money spent during elections by corporations and unions. In that decision, the Court essentially based its ruling on an earlier Supreme Court decision of 1976, Buckley v. Valeo, which ruled that spending money in elections is a form of speech.

Ex-SOS Buescher tells Dems campaign finance system ‘completely broken’

Former Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Buescher told a roomful of Garfield County Democrats Monday during their annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Dinner that campaign finance disclosure in America is “completely, irretrievably broken,” according to the Aspen Times.

HB 1370 aims to rein in anonymous campaign spending on ballot measures

A bill intended to clarify which groups are backing or opposing ballot measures – as well as provide administrative law judges more enforcement leeway in campaign finance cases – passed in the waning days of the legislative session.

House Bill…

House passes ‘critical’ campaign spending disclosure bill

State Sen. Morgan Carroll’s (D-Aurora) election expenditure bill, SB 203 (pdf), which mandates disclosure of corporate and union spending in Colorado elections, passed on third reading in the state House Tuesday, sending it to Gov. Bill Ritter’s desk after it passed on a party-line vote in the Senate Friday.

In fiery blog post, Clear the Bench dismisses ethics complaint as politics

Firebrand anti-tax Tea Party speaker and Clear the Bench Director Matt Arnold posted a broadside at the group’s website today in which he railed against a complaint filed by Colorado Ethics Watch Wednesday. Arnold wrote that the complaint…

Campaign to replace state Supreme Court justices draws ethics complaint

Colorado Ethics Watch filed complaint Wednesday against Clear the Bench Colorado (CBC), alleging the group has been collecting uncapped donations only issues committees are allowed to receive while acting as a political action committee by campaigning against specific judicial candidates. Clear the Bench founder Matthew Arnold called the complaint a spurious attack and said he has been acting under guidelines developed for Clear the Bench by the Secretary of State.

Political donation strike hits $1 million mark

The campaign-finance reform group Change Congress announced today that members of Congress may be a cool million bucks lighter in their war chests next election cycle.

The group’s aim is a donor strike — getting 2008-election-cycle donors to pledge that they will withhold any further contributions to members of Congress who don’t support a campaign-reform bill that rejects money from lobbyists, special interest and big donors. Those who have signed on reportedly contributed $1 million to federal candidates in the last go-around.

Conventions highlight gaps in ethics laws

It was one of the chief vows of the Democratic Party as it took control of both congressional chambers in 2007: to sever the cozy relationships between lobbyists and lawmakers brought to light by the Jack Abramoff scandals.

Dick Wadhams, Wally Stealey trade barbs over 527s at Vail water confab

Colorado Republican State Chairman Dick Wadhams sparred with influential lobbyist Wally Stealey in Vail Friday over the negative campaigning of independent political committees, campaign finance reform and the disaffection of voters with their respective political parties.