Whereas Denver Democratic state Rep. Leslie Herod’s Home reelection marketing campaign was going through $15,200 in penalties for failing to file her monetary disclosure, her marketing campaign for Denver mayor employed an expensive lawyer to focus on a small, grassroots group known as Residents for a Protected and Clear Denver.
Co-founded by its president, Craig Arfsten, Protected and Clear Denver advocates for cleansing up Denver’s city squalor. It educates and informs residents and small-business house owners about issues over skyrocketing crime, unlawful encampments and the open use of medication. The group distributes informative e-newsletters and hosts a web site (safeandcleandenver.com). Neighborhood-focused, it additionally regularly helps join households and small companies with native regulation enforcement and authorities businesses after they need assistance with encampments, crime and different points.
“All people looks like they’re on this alone. They don’t know who to speak to,” Arfsten instructed me on KNUS radio Monday. “So, our group makes them really feel that … they’re not on this drawback alone.”
In September, after Herod introduced her bid for mayor, Protected and Clear Denver dipped its toe in political waters for the primary time. The group put out 4 separate communications — one of their e-newsletter, three on their web site — partially expressing disapproval of Herod. The outspoken lawmaker is thought for being comfortable on crime and medicines, each of which gasoline the encampments that Protected and Clear Denver is battling.
Herod pounced. Her legal professional, Mario Nicolais, a former Republican operative and skilled election lawyer, filed a criticism in mid-October. They alleged that Protected and Clear Denver had uncared for to incorporate a disclaimer and didn’t report an unbiased marketing campaign expenditure, each mere technicalities, however each required by Denver regulation. The method culminated in a 4.5-hour listening to on Dec. 22, throughout which Arfsten, who isn’t an legal professional, represented his group.
The ultimate verdict was a blended bag. The clerk’s listening to officer, Macon Cowles, discovered the group had spent simply over $1,500 complete since its founding in July 2021, virtually solely by itself administrative prices. Cowles concluded that the proportion of these funds spent on communications focusing on Herod didn’t remotely meet the $1,000 minimal for disclosing unbiased marketing campaign expenditures underneath Denver regulation.
Cowles estimated Protected and Clear Denver spent at most $81.52 on the Herod communications.
“SCD is a grassroots group sustained on about $90 a month, largely on in-kind contributions from its President,” Cowles wrote in his order. He known as Protected and Clear Denver “the antithesis of a ‘darkish cash’ group” — batting away a preposterous declare made by Herod in a fund-raising e-newsletter.
Protected and Clear Denver was fined $250 for failing to incorporate the required disclaimer. Cowles famous this violation was one “that any grassroots group that has no activists which have been concerned in election politics earlier than may have made.”
As a veteran candidate for public workplace, Herod is aware of marketing campaign finance guidelines but didn’t file her required private monetary disclosure for 10 months. As I reported Dec. 16, her state Home marketing campaign went delinquent in submitting her private monetary disclosure assertion — for the second time since 2017. The secretary of state levied Herod a whopping $15,200 in penalties.
One way or the other, Herod missed eight delinquency notices in 10 months, lastly submitting her disclosure on Oct. 27, 2022. In a request for the SOS to waive her five-figure fines, Herod excused her delay by crying “confusion.” Final week — the day after Protected and Clear Denver’s advantageous was issued — Herod’s waiver was permitted, decreasing her advantageous to $50.
In an interview with Denverite, Herod modified her excuse; she now claims she’d by no means acquired the eight delinquency notices. This doesn’t precisely encourage confidence for her future reign as mayor.
Why does Leslie Herod imagine that she, an skilled and influential politician, deserves to have her $15,200 advantageous diminished to $50, whereas a small, rookie group group is fined 5 instances that a lot ($250) — all as a result of Herod determined to focus on them? Does she imagine this disparity is honest or equitable? Does Nicolais?
I’ve put these inquiries to Herod and Nicolais, neither of whom responded to my emails by my press deadline. It will get worse: Herod used tax {dollars} to assist pay for her lawyer.
Marketing campaign finance data present Nicolais’ regulation agency, KBN Legislation LLC, was paid $13,000 from Herod’s mayoral marketing campaign. These funds are marked as having been paid by a taxpayer-funded match via the Honest Elections Fund — the general public’s tax {dollars}.
Let’s be clear: A strong politician paid her legal professional — apparently utilizing taxpayer {dollars} — to go after a tiny residents group which has spent much less cash general than her marketing campaign probably spent pursuing the case.
“I believe that Leslie Herod mainly bullied a resident/residents group that’s very involved concerning the route of Denver — unlawful encampments, open drug use and crime in Denver,” Arfsten mentioned. “We need to make a distinction, and we’re not going to be intimidated.”
Of us like Craig Arfsten are exactly the type of individuals we would like engaged in our communities — actual people who find themselves merely attempting to assist their neighbors and companies by preserving them knowledgeable.
As a mayoral candidate, Leslie Herod owes the general public a whole accounting of the taxpayer funds her marketing campaign is paying out to squash residents teams. Herod additionally owes an apology to the on a regular basis Denverites she’s been focusing on — and whom she hopes to function mayor.
Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and host of “The Jimmy Sengenberger Present” Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Information/Discuss 710 KNUS. Attain Jimmy on-line at JimmySengenberger.com or on Twitter @SengCenter.
