Blake: Court rules Bacon's election illegally greased by teachers

Published July 22, 2006 at midnight

Text size  

• 0 Comments
• Email
• Print

So the Colorado Education Association and its Poudre affiliate illegally contributed to and coordinated with Democrat Bob Bacon's state Senate campaign in 1994.

But the ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals this week doesn't mean the Republicans will be awarded his seat and thus control of the Senate. Election remedies are never that drastic. Indeed they are basically toothless in Colorado.

The District 14 seat in Fort Collins, then held by term-limited Democrat Peggy Reeves, was the one the Republicans were most confident of picking up in 2004. If they had, they would have kept the Senate majority. But Fort Collins Mayor Ray Martinez was trounced by Bacon, thanks largely to the teachers' illegal help, and the Democrats took control by one vote.

A bell can't be unrung, however, and Bacon - who has two years left to serve - can't be unseated, no matter how egregious the violation of the finance law.

Still, Scott Gessler, attorney for the two plaintiffs who protested the teachers' activities, believes the Republicans might benefit from the decision this fall. That's because the teachers will have to be more restrained in their campaigns for Democrats.

"It'll be a lot tougher after this," he said. "They can no longer distribute candidate literature, they can't expressly advocate, nor can they fund electioneering communications. The law does apply to them; they pretended it didn't."

The teachers helped other Democratic Senate candidates in the same way in 2004, he maintained.

Not that the teachers concede any illegal activity. "We don't believe we were doing anything wrong," said CEA spokeswoman Deborah Fallin. "We always try to be aboveboard and don't work around the law."

The decision will almost certainly be appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court. "It's a huge issue," said CEA attorney Mark Grueskin, "in terms of what sort of speech organizations can have with their members and with the public."

An administrative law judge earlier sided with the CEA. But the appellate court reversed, finding that:

• The teachers' union received thousands of Bacon flyers and yard signs from the campaign for distribution;

• Bacon made a personal appearance before the teachers to thank them before they distributed the materials;

• The CEA's executive director had several conversations with Bacon's campaign manager to discuss the teachers' volunteer efforts.

"If the union wins (in the Supreme Court), the campaign finance law is a dead letter," argues Gessler.

If the decision is affirmed, the most likely punishment is a fine levied on the unions by the secretary of state, said Gessler. It can be from two to five times the monetary value of the illegal help rendered to the Bacon campaign, or from $70,000 to $175,000.

But Grueskin argues that the financial penalty was repealed by the passage of the 2002 campaign reform act, and the only penalty would be an injunction telling the offenders never to do it again.

If that's the case, the law is already a dead letter.

If there's any ambiguity in Colorado law, it's because the state hasn't adopted the strict federal definition of what constitutes coordination.

Theoretically, the Colorado Supreme Court could reverse the Court of Appeals without addressing the main issue. It could simply throw out the case on grounds that plaintiffs gathered evidence improperly from the teachers' dumpster. Usually trash is fair game, but the dumpster was on private property, and Grueskin argues the plaintiffs were trespassing.

Even if the teachers don't mend their ways during this fall's campaigns, you can be certain they'll at least buy, and use, more shredders.

Term limits back in the news: Herb Rubenstein, the third Democrat in the race for the 7th Congressional District, is doing the best he can before he is inevitably buried by the better-funded Peggy Lamm and Ed Perlmutter in the Aug. 8 primary.

He's even taken the term-limits pledge. Taking advantage of a little-known Colorado statute left over from Colorado voters' abortive attempt to put term limits on U.S. senators and representatives, he has had placed below his name on the ballot the phrase, "Signed declaration to limit service" to three two-year terms.

Of course Tom Tancredo made the same pledge, in writing, but that was years ago, before he discovered how much he likes the job and how essential his service is to the nation.

Perhaps the law should require that the same pledge go below Tancredo's name on the ballot every time he runs, whether he wants it there or not, just to remind voters how little a pledge can mean, even in writing.

Rubenstein likes to distinguish himself from Tancredo. "One of us has integrity," he said Friday.

Romer still on fire: Former Gov. Roy Romer is not leaving quietly from his job as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is trying to take over the district, as mayors have managed to do in several other big cities. But Romer dismissed the mayor's frequent attacks on the district as "propaganda" and compared them to the federal government's efforts to justify internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

"This is not a failing district," maintained Romer, 77. He will leave his job this fall after six years. The mayor called Romer's comments "outrageous" and demanded a retraction, which he didn't get.

blakep@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5119.

Featured

• 2008 Voter’s Guide

  

  Use our Ballot Builder tool to compare your viewpoints to the candidates.

• A Dozen on Denver

  

  Manuel Ramos' story is featured this week on 'A Dozen on Denver.' Check it out!

• Rocky Multimedia

  

  The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on today's events.

• Bronco Dean's rant

  

  Listen to Bronco Dean's totally biased pregame rant about the Broncos-Jaguars game.

• Presidential Elections

  

  See how Colorado counties have voted through the years.

• County election profiles

  

  A look at how residents in each Colorado county may vote.

• A dream fulfilled

  

  A Rocky Mountain News and MediaStorm production

• Latest from Dove Valley

  

  Click for more broncos videos.

• Sam Adams' Open Mic

  

  No. 44 means a lot to Floyd Little