Secretary of State Wayne Williams is in the middle of a campaign finance fight between the self-proclaimed campaign watchdog Matt Arnold and Bob Gardner, who was the former attorney for the Alliance for a Safe and Independent Woodmen Hills.

Williams made a motion to intervene in that dispute and two other campaign finance complaints Arnold has filed for similar issues.

Arnold says candidates and committees have to disclose attorneys fees, court filing fees and other fines when they are not paid with campaign funds.

Arnold argued before an Administrative Law Judge in three separate cases that the Alliance, Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, and former Rep. Mike McLachlan, D-Durango, violated campaign finance law by failing to disclose similar expenditures to the Secretary of State.

Williams argues those types of expenditures don’t have to be disclosed under specific circumstances.

“If you don’t get in on a case and you don’t intervene, then you don’t have a right of appeal, and if the parties end up walking away you have case law affecting everyone in the state that we may not agree with,” said Suzanne Staiert, deputy secretary of state.

Arnold accuses the Secretary of State’s office of playing politics because Williams and Gardner are both Republicans from El Paso County who have given to each other’s political campaign.

“That directly contravenes their position that they have taken over the entire course of the campaign finance history,” Arnold said. “It goes specifically against the rules that all committee-related disbursements must be disclosed.”

Williams said he and Gardner aren’t political allies, nor would that influence his decision to get involved. He also pointed out that Salazar and McLachlan are Democrats.

Staiert said that the office intervened in a similar case in April, arguing on the side of Arnold in an appeal.

The difference between the two cases is how far the disclosure requirements went.

In the April case, Staiert said an Administrative Law Judge went too far in a ruling that a political committee didn’t have to disclose an expenditure because it wasn’t for “express advocacy.”

That would mean that unless an expenditure was spent directly on mailers, TV commercials, door knockers or similar direct campaign activities it wouldn’t have to be reported.

That’s too far, Staiert said, noting that expenditures such as rent for office space or salaries for paid employees wouldn’t be disclosed.

But she said Arnold’s cases against the Alliance, Salazar and McLachlan go too far the other way.

If an expenditure doesn’t help with the “furtherance of the campaign” then it doesn’t have to be disclosed as long as campaign funds weren’t used.

“The FEC (Federal Election Commission) has said, ‘No, payment of attorney’s fees is not in furtherance of a campaign because you don’t have a choice,” she said. “You have to defend yourself or you have to admit it. It’s not really getting you anything of value.”

She equated it to a candidate buying a new suit before a debate using his own money and not disclosing it as an in-kind contribution.

Arnold disagreed.

“There is no case law that says anything about the furtherance of the campaign,” he said.

And defending a candidate or a committee in court or paying a fine or penalty does have a real tangible benefit to the campaign, he said, adding it’s especially important because if someone else is fronting the bill the public should know.

Ryan Call, the former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and the new attorney representing the Alliance for a Safe and Independent Woodmen Hills, said there needs to be clarity in the law so it’s entirely appropriate for the Secretary of State to get involved.

He accused Arnold of “trying to use the campaign finance regime to advance a political agenda.”

“If Matt is allowed to succeed in making this claim the broader rule involves a whole host of organizations,” he said.

Ed Ramey, the attorney representing Salazar and McLachlan made a similar argument.

“It is not useful to have people reporting all of this noise that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything,” Ramey said.

Call took over as attorney replacing Gardner on the case. Gardner, a former state representative from El Paso County, is running for Senate District 12.

The conflict between Matt Arnold and the alliance began after a 2014 election for the Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District. The alliance spent thousands of dollars sending out mailers attacking the candidate Ron Pace.

Arnold sued and won in court that the alliance should have registered as a political committee. The $9,700 penalty against the alliance has not been paid. Gardner was the registered agent for the committee and the attorney but he is not personally liable for the penalty.

Meanwhile, Pace sued the alliance for defamation and lost. The alliance sought thousands in attorneys fees and is attempting to foreclose on Pace’s house to recover those fees.

It’s those attorneys fees – the ones the alliance paid to defend itself from defamation – that Arnold says should be disclosed.

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Contact Megan Schrader

719-286-0644

Twitter: @CapitolSchrader