Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
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Representatives of the dark money groups weren’t in attendance at the capitol
✏️ Oh wait, I thought all this was a group that would have reps going around doing the dirty work. They don’t even bother to show up. They threaten from afar with negotiation tactics, and are funded by people who are legally allowed to stay anonymous. 🔗 View Highlight
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a new dark money tactic that could shape state politics across the country. With unlimited budgets and little accountability, billionaires and dark money groups can simply threaten to include measures through “citizen-led” ballot initiatives and force lawmakers of both parties to deliver what they want. Critics say this strategy allows magnates to hijack the ballot while bypassing much of the tedious and expensive campaign process
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The agreement to lower property taxes by hundreds of millions, as opposed to billions, of dollars was part of an opaque backroom deal between the governor’s office, a dark money group called Advance Colorado, and Colorado Concern, a nonprofit that represents business leaders. If the bill were to pass, the groups pledged to withdraw their two measures and remove the threat of what have been described as “draconian” property tax cuts statewide.
✏️ This is wild. A blackmail/hijack threat tactic of getting a small thing now instead of aiming for a big thing later? My gut reaction is.. why won’t they do the big thing later anyways? 🔗 View Highlight
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more than half of the savings from the tax cut bill would go toward commercial and other nonresidential properties, not homeowners.
✏️ AND.. this cut to the property taxes doesn’t even help homeowners (to give it a tiny silver lining).. it literally only helps the businesses and rich magnates. 🔗 View Highlight
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according to past reporting and information shared with us, Advance Colorado — the state’s most prominent conservative dark money group — is funded by billionaire businessman Phil Anschutz, the wealthiest resident of Colorado and owner of 434,500 acres of land across the country.
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“We’re here doing this for this special session because a decision was made to negotiate with oligarchs. This is a very, very small number of unelected, unaccountable individuals with extremely deep pockets,” Rep. Stephanie Vigil (D–Colorado Springs) said during a House meeting on the bill. “This was a deal that was drafted and stakeholded in a backroom by people who will never have to answer to you for the outcomes.”
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In Ohio, the Leonard Leo–backed dark money nonprofit Protect Women Ohio fought a ballot measure that would enshrine reproductive rights in the state. Similarly, in Texas, billionaire oil tycoon Tim Dunn helped form a dark money group to push for a private school voucher program that would hurt the state’s public school system. The Sixteen Thirty Fund, a liberal dark money group run by Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, has also spent millions on ballot campaigns across a wide array of states over the past six years.
✏️ Time and time again, rich people are using groups to influence politics?
- Why doesn’t the rich person influence directly?
- I suppose it’s a way to pool lots of money behind one group that becomes a representative in front of political entities, and making demands (while the donors are anonymous). 🔗 View Highlight
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Ballot initiatives were designed to allow citizens to propose laws and constitutional amendments. They “have been a staple of our civic life since at least the 17th century” and serve as a window “into voters’ thinking about issues over time,
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in 2022, the average signature drive to get a measure on the ballot cost $4 million in logistical and legal expenses. That leaves just wealthy individuals, who see ballot measures as a way to promote their personal interests with less legislative bureaucracy standing in their way.
✏️ Wait.. so the thing where regular people can propose laws and things has somehow become so expensive that it’s now the domain of the rich? Why is it a money thing at all? Because non-rich people can’t afford the logistics and legal expenses? 🔗 View Highlight
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In 2018, twenty-five billionaires, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, liberal billionaire George Soros, and California environmentalist Tom Steyer, doled out more than $70.7 million on ballot campaigns in nineteen states where they did not reside
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critics say billionaire-backed ballot campaigns manipulate the idea of citizen initiatives and set a dangerous precedent of the superrich buying state ballots and swaying voters.
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With such gargantuan budgets and little transparency about the people and motives behind their operations, dark money groups are now able to simply threaten sprawling election campaigns to force lawmakers to do what they want.
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“It all goes back to Citizens United,” said policy advocate Badhesha, referring to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend endless funds on elections. “Once we let unlimited money play into politics, this stuff was all bound to happen… . It’s slowly going to trickle into every single municipality and every single state in the country.”
✏️ So much damage and power out of one supreme court ruling. Super pacs, and dark money groups. 🔗 View Highlight
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attempted to pass or successfully passed legislation to address dark money in politics through campaign disclosure rules and prohibiting foreign contributions. But what is happening in Colorado may give dark money groups new ideas for circumventing such guardrails — by leveraging the threat of their massive slush funds without actually deploying them.
✏️ Now it’s no longer about actually even spending the money and pushing for changes. They literally can just threaten, without spending a dime. 🔗 View Highlight
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House Bill 1001 now heads to Gov. Jared Polis, who says he’ll sign it as soon as the two ballot measures are withdrawn — something that has to happen by September 6. According to the backroom deal between Advance Colorado, Colorado Concern, and the governor’s office, the conservative groups promise to keep similar initiatives off of the ballot for six years if the bill is signed into law.
✏️ So the new bill would cut taxes by 247 million in 2025, and 271 million in 2026. The two ballots in contention would lose them 2 billion in property taxes otherwise. 🔗 View Highlight
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nothing is stopping them from moving forward with their threatening ballot measures this year or other years, despite lawmakers’ desperate attempts to appease them.
✏️ That’s what I’m saying! 🔗 View Highlight