Pro-setbacks group faces campaign finance probe

The Secretary of State’s Office announced Wednesday it will investigate a campaign finance complaint against the group that spearheaded last November’s unsuccessful ballot measure that would have reduced new oil and gas production in Colorado.

Republican Charles Heatherly filed the complaint last month against Colorado Rising, alleging the organization incorrectly reported a large campaign contribution from the Sergey Brin Family Foundation shortly before the Nov. 6 election. The complaint also claims ProgressNow Colorado, a political advocacy organization that supports liberal causes, should have registered as an issue committee because it used the foundation’s money to do campaign work on behalf of Proposition 112, the drilling setbacks measure pushed by Colorado Rising.

Former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, who is representing Heatherly, said it appears that ProgressNow Colorado and Colorado Rising attempted to obfuscate the source of the funds — the Sergey Brin Family Foundation was started by Google founder Sergey Brin — by filing multiple amended campaign finance reports in late October that show a $170,000 donation coming from a changing list of contributors.

“The reason this is important is that one of the world’s richest men used tax-free money to try and injure the oil and gas industry in Colorado,” Gessler said. “That’s newsworthy, I think.”

Martha Tierney, an attorney for Colorado Rising, dismissed the complaint as unfounded.

“They make a whole bunch of suppositions that are not true,” she said. “And when the facts are known, I’m confident the complaint will be dismissed.”

In a letter Tierney sent the secretary of state’s office in October, she stated that the Sergey Brin Family Foundation was not the source of the $170,000 contribution, but instead the ProgressNow Education Fund was. According to her letter, Colorado Rising simply made a clerical “mistake” that was properly corrected.

The state’s Elections Division has 30 days to make a decision on whether a violation occurred.