Face the State

Mainstreet Colorado Once Again Hits Constituents with “Educational” Mail
Face the State Staff Report

While the 2008 general election is still 14 months away, voters in at least two highly competitive Colorado legislative districts are already receiving political mail from a controversial liberal organization repeatedly questioned for its campaign tactics in the past.

Households in Lakewood’s House District 26, home to Rep. Andy Kerr, and Broomfield’s House District 33, represented by Dianne Primavera, have both received a “legislative scorecard” from Main Street Colorado, a 527 organization.

The mail piece highlights the “remarkably productive time” Gov. Bill Ritter and the Democrat-controlled general assembly had when they met in legislative session earlier this year. Both mail pieces include attractive full-color photos of Kerr and Primavera, along with their contact information.

While the piece targeting Kerr’s district claims that he “is laying the foundation for future generations in Colorado” it stops short of advocating his re-election by refraining from explicitly telling voters to support him. Similarly, the piece hitting households in Primavera’s district also claims that she “is laying” this same foundation, but does not expressly advocate her re-election.

By using language that avoids direct advocacy, a tactic used regularly by Main Street Colorado, the organization remains exempt from state contribution limits and from prohibitions on union and corporate funding.

Referred to as a “527,” the organization operates under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code to raise money for political activities. These activities, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, can include “voter mobilization efforts, issue advocacy, and the like.” And by avoiding direct advocacy, Main Street Colorado has been able to raise and spend big bucks. According to federal reports, Main Street Colorado spent $2,889,082 to influence Colorado campaigns last cycle.

According to CRP, criticisms of the committees arise from the fact many are “run by special interest groups”, and while they cannot “expressly advocate the election or defeat of a federal candidate or amount” or participate in electioneering communications, they are funded by unlimited “soft money” — contributions not limited by the state or federal government’s otherwise existing individual spending contribution limits.

Scott Gessler, a Denver attorney specializing in election law, explained the process. "Because 527's don't use the 'magic words' of express advocacy, or make contributions to candidates, they can raise and spend unlimited funds. It effectively put candidates on the sidelines, as the big 527's drown out their voices."

Gessler anticipates seeing much more—and much uglier—mail from Main Street Colorado, over the next year. "Main Street ran last year's dirtiest ads, and in return Democratic legislators rewarded the leaders of that 527. So Main Street has plenty of incentive to go out and do more of the same."

While Main Street Colorado has thus far declined to submit campaign finance reports to the Colorado Secretary of State, government records reveal that in the 2006 election, Main Street was directly funded by the Colorado Education Association and three of its affiliates. In total, these unions gave more than $256,000 to the committee.

Main Street Colorado draws scrutiny over ads

In the 2006 election, Main Street Colorado ran three ads that most observers thought were particularly misleading.

First, Main Street Colorado paid for ads claiming that GOP House candidate Jeff Shaw “wants to cut coverage for mammograms.” The basis for the claim was not tied to anything Shaw said or did. But Main Street defended its ads anyway, claiming that insurance companies were against health care mandates, and insurance companies contributed $5,000 to a "527" called Trailhead, and that Trailhead had run positive ads about Shaw. In rejecting this guilt by association, the Rocky Mountain News editorial page editor Vincent Carroll referred to the ad as “the most recklessly irresponsible and false ad of the year.”

Main Street Colorado officials refused to apologize for the false advertisement, with then-President Jennifer Coken standing by the accuracy of the ads because at the time they ran “he hadn’t publicly stated his support for preventative screening.”

Second, in a mail piece sent to House District 33 voters, Main Street claimed that candidate Bill Berens voted to allow insurance companies to refuse mammogram coverage. But according to the Boulder Daily Camera, Berens claimed that the ad was an outright lie because he wasn't even in the legislature when members voted on one of the bills. Nonetheless, the mail piece featured a “grandmotherly woman wagging her finger with the slogan ‘Shame on you, Bill Berens,’” and accusing him of using “smear tactics to avoid talking about his record on illegal immigration, health care, and price gouging by oil companies.”

Main Street again defended the ad, by saying, "We're not misleading anybody about anything," she said. "That's his M.O. He's like Chicken Little. Something happens that makes people aware of his record and he wants people to look the other way. We have the facts and we don't need to lie."

Third, GOP candidates Matt Dunn, Matt Knoedler, and Affie Ellis complained to their respective district attorneys about similar misleading advertisements, mostly focusing on the same mammogram attacks that Main Street ran against other candidates.

Finally, Main Street Colorado also drew complaints from voters inundated with negative mail. A letter to the editor that appeared in the Vail Daily on November 3, 2006, written by reader Randy Milhoan, complained about “five postcards we received in one day from Mainstreet Colorado bashing and distorting Ken Clourber’s (sic) good name and excellent record.”

Chlouber, a former GOP state Senator known for his liberal support of unions, was a candidate for state House District 56 in 2006. He ultimately lost to his bid to Democrat Dan Gibbs.

Overall, Coken has defended the group’s tactics, saying it was set up as a 527 not to hide behind lax reporting requirements, but to “support candidates we think are on the right track,” and telling a reporter, "it's imperative (the people of Colorado) understand that the person they put in the state legislature is not representing their interests.”

Leadership rewarded following negative campaign

Main Street Colorado was formerly led by Jennifer Coken, who refused to return phone calls to Face the State.

According to her Web biography, Coken left Main Street Colorado after last year’s election and is now working for Western Resource Advocates, a non-profit environmental organization. She describes herself as a “20-year veteran of developing and managing political issue campaigns.” In the past she has worked for a multitude of liberal candidates and causes, including U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group.

Also involved in Main Street was Rep. Alice Madden, the current Democratic House Majority leader. Madden was frequently quoted in the newspapers as a spokesperson for Main Street, and indeed she defended the advertisements that falsely accused Republican candidates of opposing mammogram testing. Following the election, Democrats rewarded Madden by electing her as their House majority leader.

Legislature passes laws, remains silent on Main Street

During this year's legislative session, Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, introduced House Bill 1074, legislation signed by Ritter that will require groups like Mainstreet Colorado to provide donor information to the Colorado Secretary of State. Dubbed the "Colorado Clean Campaign Act of 2007", the new mandate will require all Colorado 527s to comply with the state's campaign finance reporting requirements. Specifically, the groups will no longer be able to report solely to the Internal Revenue Service, which allows them to file campaign funding reports quarterly. During election years, they will be required to complete 15 reports with the state.

According to a Rocky Mountain News report, 527s raised nearly $30 million in 2006.

Although Carroll sponsored the legislation in order to force 527's to be more careful with the facts, she has done nothing to punish or criticize the 527 that helped her Democrat colleagues. Rather than publicly rebuke the 527 that ran Colorado's dirtiest campaign, Rep. Carroll instead has passed laws that require more regulation, in the hopes that others will criticize misleading ads. "If the public could find out who is behind the attack ads, the 527s might just have to be a little more careful with their facts," Rep. Carroll told the Rocky Mountain News. While Rep. Carroll claimed the changes will allow voters to "connect the dots" who who is giving to 527s, the real effect of the legislation has yet to be seen.

Rep. Carroll has also rewarded Main Street Donors, such as the Colorado Education Association by supporting union-backed legislation this session.

For now, Primavera’s 2008 opponent, Nick Kliebenstein, says he is using Main Street Colorado’s actions to mobilize his own donor base. “I’ve been bringing the piece everywhere I go and I tell supporters ‘this is what we’re up against,’” he said. “It was probably a $20,000 mail piece and when it came out, we were still 16 months away from the election.”

Kliebenstein, a 29-year-old married father of two, works as a financial advisor. According to political insiders, both political parties will likely once against target the district as they did in 2006 when Primavera narrowly edged Barrens by 430 votes out of the 27,284 cast. The GOP still holds a slight voter registration edge over Democrats and independent voters.