LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — A judicial-ouster group has brought a campaign finance complaint against four organizations it claims are expressly advocating for the retention of Colorado Supreme Court justices.
Clear The Bench Colorado, the campaign opposing the retention of the three Colorado Supreme Court justices up for retention this year, filed a campaign finance complaint against the Colorado Bar Association, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, the Colorado Judicial Institute and the League of Women Voters.
The four groups named in the complaint each contributed to the “Know Your Judge” campaign, which produced public service announcements urging voters not to skip judges up for retention on the ballot, and letting voters know about the judge evaluations put out by the state judicial performance commissions. The vast majority of the evaluations, including those of the Supreme Court justices, include recommendations to retain the judge in question.
Clear the Bench argues that the Know Your Judge PSAs constitute express advocacy or electioneering communications.
“On information and belief, Know Your Judge does not have a major purpose of educating or informing the public on the mere process of judicial retention,” wrote Matt Arnold, Clear The Bench’s founder, in his group’s complaint. “Rather, its major purpose is to support the retention of candidates for judicial office.”
This makes a Know Your Judge a political committee, Arnold contends, which can accept only $525 per person per election cycle. The CBA, CJI and IAALS gave a total $85,000 to the Know Your Judge effort. Clear The Bench seeks damages of two to five times the amount the groups spent over the contribution limit.
The Secretary of State’s office confirmed it received the complaint on Thursday, and that it will be assigned to an administrative law judge within a few days.
“We have not received the complaint from the Secretary of State’s office,” said IAALS spokesman Dan Drayer. “We are unable to comment at this time. We will look at it and respond in due course.”
The other parties named in the complaint did not have an immediate response Friday morning.
Clear The Bench’s complaint relies in part on an administrative law judge’s ruling in a campaign finance complaint brought against it this year by Colorado Ethics Watch. The ruling found that committees that advocate for or against a judge must register as political committees.
This latest complaint is the fourth campaign finance complaint filed this year in Colorado that relates to judicial retention elections. Besides the two that involve Clear The Bench, two complaints have been filed by Larimer County groups, one of which supports and one of which opposes district judges Jolene Blair and Terry Gilmore.
Clear The Bench’s complaint:
CTBC Complaint vs KYJ Final 20101028
5 Responses to “Judicial-Ouster Group Files Complaint Against Colo. Bar Association, 3 Others”
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[...] of Colorado legal issues) was Law Week Colorado. Their article, published online Friday (”Judicial-Ouster Group Files Complaint Against Colo. Bar Association, 3 Others“) notes that [t]he four groups named in the complaint each contributed to the “Know [...]
[...] in Colorado history, by several orders of magnitude) against the Know Your Judge consortium by Law Week Colorado and Face The State, the consistently thorough and professional investigative journalist Michael [...]
[...] and fines, potentially the largest in Colorado history) against the Know Your Judge consortium by Law Week Colorado and Face The State, the Denver Post article was the first to obtain a comment from any of the [...]
[...] — There will be a hearing Friday related to the campaign finance complaint filed by judicial-ouster group Clear The Bench Colorado against the Colorado Bar Association, the [...]
[...] — The hearing in the campaign finance complaint filed by judicial-ouster group Clear The Bench Colorado against the Colorado Bar Association and [...]