Western Skies Coalition

State Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, the former quarterback and golden boy of the state GOP, has his name splashed all over a piece of clean-energy legislation that has the backing of his political nemesis, Gov. Bill Ritter, and a slew of conservation groups, including Environment Colorado, Colorado Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club.

Colorado campaign watchdog groups are keeping a close eye on a Virginia nonprofit group with a Littleton address, which they suspect may be the smoking gun gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis alluded to on a cryptic voicemail nearly a year ago.

Did he sign it? Did he doodle on it? Did he go along with it only as a gimmick? What did The Penry Pledge say? Was it: “I’ll keep my State Senate seat for four years”? Or was it: “I won’t run for another office while I’m serving Senate District 7″? Or was it both?
The [...]

Former six-term Republican congressman Scott McInnis, who’s all but announced he intends to run for the governor’s office in 2010, may be getting some payback for taking on the conservative base of the state party just before the 2008 election.

There were mixed results Tuesday in pair of key state Senate races targeted by the shadowy, pro-energy nonprofit group Western Skies Coalition, which is being investigated by the IRS to determine if it’s actually engaged in social welfare activities or hard-core politicking.

Three weeks after The Colorado Independent launched a series of reports detailing the shadowy group Western Skies Coalition, the watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch has filed an IRS complaint asking for an immediate investigation into whether Western Skies, along with three other 501(c)4 nonprofits, are truly engaged in “social welfare” activities — or if their activities are actually more akin to hard core politicking.

Even as a shadowy conservative group backed by oil and gas money works to reclaim a state Senate majority for Republicans in 2010, other issues committees are taking a much more direct approach to fighting off attempts to end tax subsidies for the industry in November.

Rep. Frank McNulty is one of a trio of GOP state lawmakers thought to be behind the Western Skies Coalition — a Virginia corporation raising oil and gas money to target key state senate races.

In an interview with Colorado Independent, McNulty (R-Highlands Ranch) declined to discuss the group’s funding sources Tuesday, but he did acknowledge signing its “Energy Leadership Action Plan” pledge.

Oil and gas companies doing business in Colorado have dropped a mind-blowing $10 million into Amendment 58 — a statewide initiative that would cut their state severance tax and raise roughly $321 million a year for college scholarships, wildlife habitat and other programs. But when it comes to whether big oil may be pumping in cash to help Republicans retake control of the state Senate, well, they’re just not saying. And in fact, they don’t have to.

It’s as clear as the Western Skies: Nonprofit 501(c)4s are the new 527s of the Colorado political scene, the latest way that shadowy special interest groups are tapping into seemingly unlimited undisclosed special interest cash to attack or support candidates who can further their agendas. Take, for instance, the Western Skies Coalition, a conservative group claiming to be a 501(c)4 nonprofit dedicated to “promoting issues that make our nation great.”