Last spring an administrative law judge found that an Aurora election issues committee called the Colorado League of Taxpayers violated Colorado campaign finance laws by failing to report nearly $2,400 spent on mailers opposing Democrat Steve Carter’s bid for Garfield County commissioner in 2008.

Secretary of State Bernie Buescher

The judge fined the nonprofit $7,150 (pdf) for admittedly failing to file a report on its electioneering communications spending with the Colorado secretary of state’s office by the required Sept. 29, 2008, deadline. Now, more than 14 months after the violation, the group, traced to Republican political operative Scott Shires, still has not paid its fine.

The Colorado League of Taxpayers case is just one of many examples of issues and candidate committees on both sides of the political spectrum that have failed to pay campaign finance penalties to the state totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But it’s a particularly glaring one because of Shires’ history of previous violations and because it came in a local election once thought to be immune from infusions of outside political money. The oil and gas industry spent heavily on that county commissioner’s race in 2008, funneling cash through several 527 groups (named for a section of the tax code) and 501(c)4 nonprofits.

Both Democrats campaigning on tighter environmental restrictions for the then-booming natural gas industry were defeated by Republicans who lamented the outside money and denied having anything to do with what some observers later deemed “a stolen election.”

How to bear down on deadbeats

Now the secretary of state’s office, headed by Buescher, a former Democratic state representative from Grand Junction, is trying to get tougher on collecting from the deadbeat issues and candidate committees and weighing options.

“Among the discussions that we’ve had is what about legislation that would impose personal liability on the registered agents?” Deputy Secretary of State Bill Hobbs told the Colorado Independent Wednesday. “Now, that’s not something that we could do — that would take legislation — but that is one of the things that seems to have some good support as maybe one of the ways to improve the enforcement and be able to hold people accountable.”

Hobbs cautioned that he has not seen language for any such bill proposed for the upcoming legislative session in January, nor has he heard of any individual lawmakers willing to take on such a reform measure. He did say, however, that campaign finance bills seem to be floated every session and that this particular issue is on the radar of several lawmakers.

Buescher, who was surprisingly and narrowly defeated last year by Collbran Republican Laura Bradford in a state house race involving 527 money, is also concerned about the issue of unpaid fines, Hobbs said.

“He’s very much aware of it and he would be supportive of something in that area as well,” Hobbs said of Buescher, who was the presumptive speaker of the house before losing to Bradford. “He understands the problem and probably would be supportive of legislation. We don’t have any specific language in front of us, and the devil could be in the details.”

No enforcement mechanism

Those details include limitations imposed by Colorado voters when they passed the campaign finance Amendment in 2002. The amendment dictated that campaign finance violations should be a citizen complaint-driven process, the cases decided by an administrative law judge rather than a partisan, elected secretary of state.

In the case of the Colorado League of Taxpayers, it took the political watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch filing a complaint, and Carter, the Democrat victimized by illegal electioneering, says that’s a flaw with the system.

A retired judge and private-practice attorney in Rifle, Carter did not return a call requesting comment for this story, but last summer he told the Colorado Independent that the law needs to be changed “so that it’s not just a complaint-driven procedure, but where there appears to be violations of campaign finance laws, the secretary of state or a grand jury can investigate it if they want to. There’s no enforcement mechanism unless there are groups like Ethics Watch that want to do it just because they stand for clean elections.”

Under Amendment 27, Hobbs said his office is compelled to turn over any citizen complaints to a judge within three days, and if a judgment is rendered and a fine is levied, the secretary of state then treats any unpaid penalties just as it would any other fines – ultimately turning them over to state collections after a certain period.

The Colorado League of Taxpayers fine has not been turned over the collections yet, according to secretary of state spokeswoman Stephanie Cegielski, because the state collections department is in the midst of a computer system conversion that will put in place an online tracking method for all the various state agencies that rely on collections.

While personal liability for agents forming issues committees would make it easier for the state to collect unpaid fines, Hobbs warns there could be unintended side effects.

“There will be probably a little bit of concern that would be discussed or raised about what’s the chilling effect on agents if merely being an agent for a citizens group of some sort exposes you to personal liability for inadvertent violations of what can be pretty complex campaign finance laws,” Hobbs said. “It’s not going to be a black and white thing.”

Court fees and partisan politics

Luis Toro, senior counsel for Colorado Ethics Watch, said the secretary of state’s office may have to take the point on this because a citizens group filing suit against an issues committee to compel it to pays its state fines would expose that group to having to pay attorney’s fees if it loses.

“There’s clearly some authority for the secretary of state to take action,” Toro said. “Maybe the secretary of state and the attorney general could work together to file an enforcement action on one of these cases and then see what happens. [Amendment 27] says the prevailing party’s attorney’s fees in a private case; it doesn’t say that about a secretary of state enforcement action.”

But Hobbs said a citizens group would only be exposed to paying opposing legal fees if it loses a clearly frivolous enforcement case. He added there was a reason voters made campaign finance a citizen complaint process versus leaving up the secretary of state when they passed Amendment 27.

“The secretary of state is a partisan elected official, and by shifting the enforcement to administrative law judges, the idea is to put the issue of whether or not there has been a violation in front of an impartial, nonpolitical decision-maker,” Hobbs said. “Inevitably, almost all of the complaints involve partisan politics, frankly.”

Attempts to reach Shires for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.

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The Montana-based 501c4, Western Tradition Partnership, is reportedly one of two groups behind a Sept. 23 push poll targeting incumbent councilwoman Karen Benker, who filed a complaint with the city clerk’s office on Monday, according to the Longmont Times Call.

Her opponent, Katie Witt, said she had nothing to do with the poll, which asked leading questions like this one: “If you knew that Karen Benker discriminated against a Christian church organization unfairly based on their religion, would that make you more or less favorable toward her?”

That’s a reference to a controversial no vote two years ago on a commercial project proposed by LifeBridge Christian Church. Witt, according to ColoradoPols, is a failed state Senate candidate from last year who’s being groomed by the state GOP for bigger and better things but needs to win something first – like a Longmont City Council race.

Western Tradition Partnership first reared its ugly head in the 2008 Garfield County commissioners race on Colorado’s gas-happy Western Slope, where two Dems were targeted by big oil and gas money in a smear campaign that cost both of them the election and led to Shires being fined for campaign violations.

Although, Western Tradition Partnership was first formed last year in that bastion of political tolerance, Montana, it was also incorporated in Colorado by Shires, although the registered agent was later changed.

Former Marilyn Musgrave congressional staffer Jacob Leis is WTP’s executive director, which makes the whole religious right, “drill, baby, drill” connection come full circle. WTP has gone after Betsy Markey, the Dem who finally ousted the arch-conservative Musgrave last year, for her yes vote this summer on climate change legislation.

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2008 Democratic Garfield County commission candidate Steve Carter. (Photo/www.SteveCarter.us)

It’s been nearly eight months since former Garfield County Judge Steve Carter says he was ambushed by oil and gas money in his unsuccessful bid for county commissioner, but the Democrat is clearly still seething about what he considers a “stolen election.”

“If somebody parks in your parking place, you can call the police department and they’ll come and investigate it and give the guy a ticket. But if someone steals an election, the way it’s set up right now, neither the attorney general, the secretary of state, the local [district attorney] or the local police department have the power to investigate it, and I think that should be changed,” Carter said in an interview.

Formal complaints about illegal electioneering by so-called 527 political committees or nonprofits are typically left up to the losing candidate — who may or may not have the resources to pursue a complaint — and usually are filed after the fact.

“A crime is committed when somebody does those things and fails to disclose where they’re getting their money — the kind of political things that [Republican operative] Scott Shires’ group did,” Carter said. “However, unless somebody like Colorado Ethics Watch spends the time, money and effort to file a formal complaint, nobody will do anything.”

A judge in April fined Shires and his Aurora-based Colorado League of Taxpayers $7,150 for failing to file an electioneering communications report for money it spent to influence the race, which pitted two Democrats seeking more control over natural gas drilling against Republicans running on pro-drilling platforms. Garfield County is a hot-bed of natural gas production, with more than 5,000 active wells at one point last year.

At least five other groups, both 527s — named for a section of the federal tax code and not bound by traditional fund-raising limits that govern other political groups — and 501(c)4 nonprofits, spent heavily on that 2008 race. Carter and fellow Democrat Stephen Bershenyi said they were the subject of last-minute lies and personal attacks about past business dealings and political positions.

It was an unprecedented flurry of outside spending for a local race — including some money from liberal environmental groups — and some observers are worried it set a new standard for election spending on the Western Slope.

“Industry decided they had a candidate that they already owned that they were going to protect at any cost and they wanted to make sure stayed in place, and they spared basically no expense to get that done,” said Bershenyi, referring to incumbent Republican John Martin. “I’ve been told by reliable sources who shall remain anonymous that industry spent well over $100,000 making sure that happened.”

Martin fairly firmly denounced the attack ads, fake newspapers and other tactics targeting the Democrats, saying he didn’t need the help, didn’t appreciate the outside influence — by either the industry or environmentalists — and preferred to run on his record and the issues.

But in an April interview, he also predicted such tactics are here to stay, and that groups on both sides of the energy debate will spend heavily in the 2010 election.

“All of that is going to come to light, and you’ll have many, many arguments, and should we say accusations, as well as explanations in the political arena from the governor to the locals in two years,” Martin said.

Bershenyi, a blacksmith and artist who grew up in Glenwood Springs, ran unopposed and won an at-large city council seat in his hometown in April. He said he learned a lot from his run against Martin and now has a much thicker political skin, but he wants to focus on city government before considering running for commissioner again in 2012.

“What you saw in that race was probably something unprecedented in terms of it never having been seen in a local race like this,” Bershenyi said. “County commissioner races in Garfield County have traditionally been races about issues, races about voting records and direction, and not about personality, and this was a radical departure from that.”

Carter, a Rifle attorney, said he won’t run again in 2012, hoping instead a younger candidate steps into the fray. He doesn’t blame his 2008 Republican opponent, Rifle High School Dean of Students Mike Samson, for the industry tactics, but feels bad for the oil and gas workers who were lured to the polls by false promises on Election Day.

“The workers were all told that if these two guys get elected you’ll be laid off tomorrow, and as a result, not just in my election but also in Bershenyi’s, it was a complete turnaround,” Carter said, referring to early returns and absentee ballots that had both Democrats leading. “So they voted the way they were told and they got laid off anyway.”

A slowdown in natural gas drilling, brought on by the recession and declining commodity prices, has led the laying off of hundreds of contract workers across the Western Slope since the 2008 election.

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Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison. (Photo/repcurry.com)

A mineral royalty rights meeting that turned ugly in Grand Junction earlier this month is just a small taste of what’s coming for local and state Democrats running for re-election in 2010 on Colorado’s Western Slope, according to one lawmaker.

“This was a warning shot for me,” said state Rep. Kathleen Curry, a Democrat from Gunnison. “This is an indication of what we’ll be up against on the Western Slope, at least in the areas where the boom-and- bust cycle of drilling is in the bust phase.”

Curry said she was shouted down at times during what she thought was a royalty owner’s meeting to discuss legislation to protect their rights. Instead, the meeting turned into a rather heated debate about the more environmentally stringent Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission drilling regulations passed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature this year.

“That’s telling me that as part of the 2010 election cycle there will be a lot of discussion about that, and that’s fine,” Curry said. “So in a way it was good, because now I know. I do feel like [the Legislature] did the right thing this year, and I do have responses to the questions and reasons for the positions that I took.”

Some in the oil and gas industry are in part blaming the new rules for a massive slowdown in drilling across the Western Slope. They’ve promised to frame the 2010 election in terms of jobs and economic opportunity lost.

Tom Rutledge, a senior landman for Denver-based Laramie Energy, was Curry’s main detractor at the royalty owner’s meeting, although he was not representing his company. He said the rules have kept him from developing his rights on land he owns in North Park, but feels there’s no open forum for criticizing the new rules.

“So it’s a very politically charged issue,” Rutledge said last week by phone. “The industry’s been discredited as a bunch of greedy people that don’t tell the truth. There is retribution out there, and everyone is living in a lot of fear right now because if you work for a company, your company will be punished by the people in charge. We don’t think there’s an open public forum anymore.”

Curry said she welcomes tough questions on the new regulations and will be better prepared on the subject at future meetings, no matter the topic, but she added it would be a mistake for the oil and gas industry to use tactics seen in the 2008 Garfield County election, when money from 527 groups fueled a questionable campaign aimed at Democrats.

A 527 group, named for a section of the federal tax code, is a tax-exempt political organization formed to influence the campaigns of elected officials and is not bound by traditional fund-raising limits that govern other political groups. The Aurora-based Colorado League of Taxpayers headed by Republican operative Scott Shires was fined more than $7,000 for improper electioneering in the Garfield County commissioner’s race in 2008.

In Curry’s case, she sponsored a bill that kept between 4,000 and 5,000 coal-bed methane bills online despite a Supreme Court ruling that would have shut them down. Her district includes New Castle and Silt, both in gas-rich Garfield County.

“For them to do a full-scale attack on me doesn’t help them because I will win, and my voters are not stupid, and they will see through the glossy flyers and they will see through the lies and they will make their decisions based on my record and my integrity,” Curry said.

“[The oil and gas industry] can put all the money they want into 527s and I’m going to win anyway, and then next time around when I come in and they need help on something, they will not have set themselves up for that.”

Meanwhile, industry officials say they are starting to see olive branches being offered by Democrats, including Gov. Bill Ritter himself, who continues do a delicate balancing act between pushing hard for his “New Energy Economy” — and all the new jobs it’s brought to the state — and propping up the faltering oil and gas sector.

Susan Alvillar, community affairs representative for Williams, a major Western Slope natural gas producer, said in an interview last month that Ritter sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to keep tax credits in place for certain drilling supplies.

“I thought that was really heartening, to say the least, that he would take that position,” Alvillar said. “People are recognizing that the new energy spirit in western Colorado is going to have to include a bridge fuel, which we see as natural gas, and also because we certainly support renewables, but the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine all the time.”

The judge rejected the argument of the Aurora-based Colorado League of Taxpayers that its lack of experience and limited resources led to the oversight, which the group confessed to earlier this month in the wake of a Colorado Ethics Watch complaint filed in February.

Ethics Watch successfully argued the group has been fined for similar “oversights” in Weld County, another hot-bed of natural gas production. Carter in part was running on a platform of more responsible natural-gas drilling in the resource-rich Western Slope county, advocating for more stringent environmental controls.

Shires, a GOP operative with a long history of questionable campaign tactics, is listed as an officer of the Colorado League of Taxpayers.

Colorado Ethics Watch, which filed a complaint against the Aurora-based Colorado League of Taxpayers in February, issued a statement Wednesday blasting the Shires front for a mailer it sent out in September urging Garfield County voters not to back Democrat Steve Carter, who was running in part on an anti-oil-and-gas platform.

Carter, a Rifle attorney, narrowly lost to Republican Mike Samson, an administrator at Rifle High School. Carter was incredulous during the election at the “new low” established in a local race, telling the Aspen Daily News, “These folks are funded by the CEOs of the energy companies. They must be getting desperate if that’s the best they’re coming up with.”

Despite admitting to wrongdoing (state law requires a report within 60 days of the general election), the group still hasn’t complied, according to Ethics Watch, and that could lead to fines of $50 a day dating back to Sept. 29. The penalty now tops $9,750 and counting.

Shires likely isn’t sweating the prospect of such fines, as he has a long history of campaign-law violations. Cold comfort, no doubt, to Carter and other conservation-minded voters in Garfield County.

The Denver Post reported Wednesday that Shires was indicted for aiding restaurateur Jeffrey Castardi on an alleged money-laundering scheme to hide an illegal gambling operation. Predictably, Shires denies any wrongdoing, claiming that he began to have second thoughts about his association with Castardi. “I said, ‘I can’t hang around this dude,’” Shires told the Post.

Shires, who has served as the registered agent for dozens of Republican political committees and 527s for more than a decade, has quite the colorful professional history.

He is currently under probation for failing to file federal taxes for the National Alternative Fuel Foundation (NAFF), which was accused of running an elaborate Ponzi scheme that defrauded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 56 private investors of more than $4 million. Shires was sentenced in June 2008 and nicked for $3,450 in fines.

In May 2008, NAFF’s founder, William Orr, was found guilty on 23 federal counts of fraud, failure to file tax returns and making false statements. Orr is appealing his conviction. Former U.S. congressman and current member of the Colorado State Board of Education Bob Schaffer was also linked to NAFF and took some heat for his fuzzy recollection of his board tenure while the group was being probed by federal investigators.

In July 2008, after Shires’ tax-fraud sentence was handed down, Colorado Ethics Watch filed a complaint that the Senate Majority Fund, a Republican 527 political committee linked to Shires, violated state and federal law by failing to disclose media buys that supported Senate District 19 candidate Libby Szabo.

Shires was also hauled into court again to answer a state administrative law judge in August 2008 on a private citizen’s complaint that the Colorado Taxpayers League failed to register as a political organization and file an electioneering report for an opposition mailer it sent out in a 2008 Weld County commissioners GOP primary race.

Last month, Colorado Ethics Watch claimed that the League failed to file a mandatory electioneering report to the Colorado secretary of state for a pricey mailer against a Democratic candidate. Controversy magnet Shires serves as the organization’s agent of record and is responsible for filing its campaign finance reports.

In the 2006 election cycle, Shires was embroiled in a money shifting controversy with the Trailhead Group where contributions were shunted to and from like-minded GOP political groups with the money trail varying significantly between the received and expended amounts reported — a difference in several cases of tens of thousands of dollars that appeared to simply evaporate on the balance sheets. Colorado Independent’s investigative reporting spurred some of the groups to quickly amend their reports. Democratic state lawmaker Rep. Morgan Carroll later tightened a state campaign-finance reporting loophole for IRS-designated Section 527 political committees to stem this type of activity.

Stay tuned.

Colorado Ethics Watch claims that the Aurora-based Colorado League of Taxpayers failed to file a mandatory electioneering report to the Colorado secretary of state for a pricey mailer against a Democratic candidate. Controversy magnet Shires serves as the organization’s agent of record and is responsible for filing its campaign finance reports.

From the Ethics Watch statement:

On or about September 19, 2008, the Colorado League of Taxpayers mailed to voters in Garfield County a mail piece advocating against the election of Steve Carter, a candidate for Garfield County Commissioner. State law requires any organization advocating for or against a candidate for elected office, within 60 days before a general election, to file an electioneering communication report with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office or, in this case, with the Garfield County Clerk. There is no report on file at either office from the Colorado League of Taxpayers.

By failing to file a report by the September 29 deadline, the Colorado League of Taxpayers could be liable for fines of $50 per day for each day the report is delinquent. As of February 20, these penalties amount to more than $7,000.

“The Colorado League of Taxpayers is skirting the law and ignoring requirements for transparency,” said Luis Toro, senior counsel for Colorado Ethics Watch. “The election might be over, but groups that refuse to follow the law must still be held accountable.”

Ironically, as an agent for the taxpayers group, Shires pleaded guilty to three federal corporate tax charges in June 2008 for an unrelated business endeavor.

Shortly after Shires’ June federal court sentencing where he was nicked for $3,450 in fines and one year’s probation, he was answering to a state administrative law judge in August on a private citizen’s complaint that the Colorado Taxpayers League failed to register as a political organization and file an electioneering report for an opposition mailer it sent out in a 2008 Weld County commissioners GOP primary race.

Ethics Watch’s complaint echoes an aspect of August charges, which dismissed the registration count on a technicality but levied a $650 fine for failing to file an electioneering report.

Somebody buy this man some twine for his finger.

Democrats Stephen Bershenyi of Glenwood Springs and Steve Carter of Rifle are both locked in especially bitter races against Republicans John Martin and Mike Samson. Nearly $50,000 in outside money from 501(c)4 nonprofit political groups and 527s has poured into the fray.

A mailer intended to look like a newspaper called the Garfield County Post recently hit post office boxes in the rural but energy-rich county that stretches from Glenwood Canyon to the Utah border. It accused Bershenyi of opposing a proposed Glenwood Springs development for personal profit and Carter of trying to make Garfield County a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. Both Dems strongly denied the allegations and rejected the smear tactics.

“They’re reaching a new low,” Carter told the Aspen Daily News. “These folks are funded by the CEOs of the energy companies. They must be getting desperate if that’s the best they’re coming up with.”

According to the Daily News, a Sunday story in the Great Falls Tribune said two of the groups that targeted the two Dems — the Coalition for Energy and the Environment and Western Tradition Partnership — are being sued for electioneering violations in Montana.

Colorado Republican operative Scott Shires is the registered agent for the Coalition for Energy and the Environment, and the Daily News reports another group that’s been supporting the two Republicans in the race, Western Heritage, is funded by the CEO of the oil and gas company Antero Resources. Small Town Values, a Denver-based group registered to the attorney for the state Republican Party, John Zakhem, has also campaigned on behalf of Samson and Martin.

Both Dems have questioned the legality of the mailers and attack ads and considered filing a complaint with the secretary of state’s office, but the political watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch told the Daily News the tactics may be reprehensible but likely aren’t illegal.

HD 56 candidate Ali Hasan, right, with his campaign manager Kaye Ferry. (Photo/Hasan 2008.com)

According to Hasan’s mid-September campaign report, Nevada Cancer Centers, a private oncology practice located in Las Vegas, Nev., gave a cool grand to the campaign on Sept. 5. Trouble is that’s $600 over the legal limit — if it was a legal gift, which is in dispute. According to Nevada Secretary of State records, the cancer center is a corporation from which a campaign contribution is illegal. Now, a statewide watchdog group is calling for Hasan to return the money.

However, that may not be the only check that may give Hasan heartburn. On the same day the Nevada Cancer Center money was deposited, H. E. Whitlock, LLC, gave an $800 gift — possibly twice the allowable amount — again if it’s even allowable at all. The Colorado Secretary of State has no listing for a Limited Liability Company (LLC) of the same name as the incorporated Pueblo construction firm, H.E. Whitlock, Inc. Groups organized as LLCs can make political contributions of up to $400 from each LLC director under the same legal limits as individuals. Corporations cannot give at all.

The campaign has 30 days to refund the contributions from the date of their receipt — in this case a fast-approaching Oct. 5 deadline. If the apparent corporate donations are found to be legal there’s still the matter of the excessive amounts. The overages have not yet been returned, according to two subsequent campaign reports filed on Sept. 15 and Sept. 29 following the errant deposits. The next campaign finance report, and the last in which the campaign can dump the extra $1,000 from the two donations without penalty, is due Oct. 14.

Hasan could not immediately be reached for comment.

Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Ethics Watch, called for Hasan to immediately refund the tainted contribution from the Nevada Cancer Center. In a statement, Taylor said, “The contribution patently exceeds the $400 contribution limit and was apparently made by an unlawful source — a corporation. This contribution so obviously violates campaign finance law, it is astonishing that Mr. Hasan went so far as to deposit and report the contribution rather than instantly return it. We call on Mr. Hasan to immediately correct the violation.”

The flamboyant Hasan, who vowed celibacy through Election Day, is running the richest statehouse race in Colorado. Since our reporting earlier this month that pegged his coffers at $191,000, he’s raised an additional $90,000 in the last two weeks taking his war chest to an astronomical $281,000 — the most spent on a statehouse seat in modern memory. At last count, 92 percent of the contributions are from the candidate himself. House District 56 encompasses much of the central mountains, including the tony resorts of Vail and Beaver Creek.

With all that cash flying around, it’s no surprise that Hasan turned to Scott Shires, an old campaign hand with experience as a registered agent responsible for compiling and submitting finance reports for 54 GOP candidates and political committees over the last decade.

A colorful character himself, Shires has a long-documented history of skirting the rules and getting himself into a fair amount of public scrutiny, as well as legal trouble.

In the 2006 election cycle, Shires was embroiled in a money shifting controversy with the Trailhead Group where contributions were shunted to and from like-minded GOP political groups with the money trail varying significantly between the received and expended amounts reported — a difference in several cases of tens of thousands dollars that appeared to simply evaporate on the balance sheets. Colorado Independent’s investigative reporting spurred some of the groups to quickly amend their reports. Democratic state lawmaker Rep. Morgan Carroll later tightened a state campaign finance reporting loophole for IRS-designated Section 527 political committees to stem this type of activity.

In June 2008, Shires was sentenced to one year of probation and a $3,450 fine after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor counts of failing to file tax returns for the National Alternative Fuels Foundation (NAFF), which was prosecuted for running an elaborate Ponzi scheme that defrauded the Environmental Protection Agency and 56 private investors of more than $4 million. Shires’ former NAFF business partner Bill Orr was convicted of 23 criminal counts in May. Orr will be sentenced later this week. U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer was also linked to the foundation and took some heat for his fuzzy recollection of his board tenure while the group was being probed by federal investigators.

A month after his tax fraud sentence was handed down, Colorado Ethics Watch filed a complaint that the Senate Majority Fund, a Republican 527 political committee linked to Shires, for violating state and federal law for failing to disclose media buys to support Senate District 19 candidate Libby Szabo. Shires is expected back in court Oct. 2 to respond to a motion for summary judgment, according to the ethics watchdog group.

Hasan’s Democratic opponent Rep. Christine Scanlan has raised just $34,000. An analysis of Scanlan’s disclosure reports indicate no rule violations.