Tuesday, Ryan Call, legal counsel to the Colorado Republican Party, told the Colorado Independent that he has not reviewed gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes’ campaign finance reports and never gave Maes legal advice regarding the reports or the complaint filed against the Maes campaign.
“I don’t know where he is getting the idea that I think what he is doing is OK,” Call said. “I do not serve as legal counsel to his or anyone else’s campaign. I have not reviewed his financial reports and I do not have an opinion as to whether the complaint has merit.”
As the Independent reported Friday, documents filed with the Secretary of State reveal that, since October, Maes has been paid $33,135 by his campaign for mileage. Since January, the campaign paid him $7,599 for other expenses, and since February, Maes has received a flat $5,000 a month for mileage.
Maes explained that once the campaign began generating sufficient cash flow last fall, he began to accept retroactive reimbursements for past expenses. He said Call advised him that the practice was legal.
Call told the Independent that Maes is correct, that it is legal for Maes to be reimbursed by his campaign for past expenses.
Erik Groves, an attorney who filed the complaint on Maes’s finances on behalf of Christopher Klitze, says it’s true that Maes can be reimbursed for past expenses but only if those expenses were reported as expenses during the filing period when they occurred, which Groves said did not happen.
Rich Coolidge, director of communication for the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, said it is not clear that Groves’ reading of the rules is correct. “That will be up to the administrative law judge to decide,” he said.
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