Evidence Shows Likely Coordination Between Hickenlooper’s Campaign
and the Senate Majority PAC.
Washington, D.C.— July 10, 2020— Yesterday, the non-partisan ethics watchdog, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to investigate Senate Candidate John Hickenlooper, his campaign, Hickenlooper for Colorado, and the super PAC, Senate Majority PAC (SMP), for apparent violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act.
According to FACT, on June 13, 2020, Hickenlooper’s campaign posted written materials to getthefacts.co. This is not Hickenlooper’s campaign website, but a completely different website with what appears to be a distinct purpose other than the campaign’s normal communication with citizens and media. Exactly as previous candidates have done before, Hickenlooper used specific code language to identify the request or suggestion for an outside group to fund the ad, i.e. “Coloradans Need to Know.” Twelve days later on June 25, 2020, Senate Majority PAC began running a television advertisement, republishing both the written material posted by Hickenlooper’s campaign along with video from a previous Hickenlooper campaign advertisement.
The filing states, “There is reason to believe Hickenlooper and Hickenlooper for Colorado are coordinating with Senate Majority PAC based on (1) Hickenlooper posting a ‘request or suggestions’ for an ad using known language to instruct and provide content for an advertisement; and (2) Senate Majority PAC responding by running an advertisement with the requested content and Hickenlooper’s b-roll video within twelve days of the request. Additionally, there is reason to believe Senate Majority PAC republished candidate and campaign materials based on the content of the advertisement.”
“The facts demonstrate there was coordination between Hickenlooper’s campaign and Senate Majority PAC. Hickenlooper posted a ‘request or suggestion,’ ask using language we have seen several times in the past. The fact that twelve days after the ask was published Senate Majority PAC ran the advertisement leads me to believe there was coordination between the campaign and super PAC. Additionally, a super PAC is never allowed to republish campaign materials under any circumstances, including publicly available content found on the internet. The FEC needs to thoroughly investigate this case and hold the respondents accountable," said Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of FACT.
A full copy of the complaint can be found by clicking here.
FACT is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas. For more on FACT, visit: http://www.factdc.org/
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