Face The State Staff Report
Clean Government Colorado, the campaign for Initiative 59, submitted nearly 125,000 signatures Wednesday to the Colorado Secretary of State. If certified for the ballot and approved by voters this November, the proposal would prohibit government contractors holding no-bid contracts from making campaign contributions to political parties and candidates.
Tom Lucero, chairman of the campaign and a University of Colorado Regent, is confident the measure will be well received. “Voters are very cynical,” he said. “They believe politicians do favors and accept kick backs.”
Protect Colorado’s Future, a union coalition, has come out against the initiative. Lucero believes the response is based over confusion by labor leaders over what the initiative would do. He is expecting the group to have a strong reaction and predicts it will file a lawsuit if the initiative's signatures are sufficient to allow it to be certified for the November ballot. Under current state law, initiatives must receive more than 76,000 valid signatures to be certified.
Lawsuits have already been filed against three initiatives already approved for the ballot, including Amendment 46, Amendment 47, and Amendment 49. link to campaign sites. All are considered conservative measures and being challenged in court by attorney Mark Grueskin, a favorite litigator among Democrat activists.
“He’s trying to create a distraction and to drain resources,” Lucero said. “They have money flowing in from all over the country.” During the last campaign finance cycle, which was two weeks long, Protect Colorado’s Futures paid Grueskin’s firm more than $24,000 in legal fees.
Despite his anticipation of a lawsuit, Lucero hopes to distance Clean Government Colorado from other initiatives. He maintains that initiative 59 is non-partisan and targets everyone with a no-bid contract from influencing the political process.
Initiatives have been submitting signatures to the Secretary of State in droves, and Lucero expects it will take up to three weeks to receive ballot certification. In addition to the four initiatives already certified for the ballot, four more are now awaiting certification, and at least four more are expected to be submitted by Monday's August 4th deadline.
Jess Knox, spokesman for Protect Colorado’s Future, could not be reached for comment.