One doesn’t often encounter political campaigns that take a vow of poverty but Colorado “personhood” supporters have blazed virgin trails before. But that pledge may already be as tarnished as a forgotten purity ring.
At an Aug. 25 press conference at a Denver area post office, ultra-conservative religious activists kicked off another state ballot measure as a thinly veiled attempt to ban abortion, hormonal contraception, in-vitro fertilization and stem cell research by amending the state constitution to provide legal rights to fertilized eggs. Supporters boldly proclaimed Personhood Colorado would be the first all-volunteer campaign in the state’s history.
That low-rent promise was delivered in the group’s third quarter campaign finance report filed with the Colorado Secretary of State on Oct. 9.
The campaign’s cash-on-hand balance was a modest $864.93 after paying a non-itemized expenditure of just $2.55 over the three months when the group was preparing for its ballot hearing and cranking up its petitioning process.
To place the constitutional amendment on the November 2010 ballot Personhood Colorado must collect 76,074 valid signatures by Feb. 15. A steep order for a group that has raised very little money and spent less than the price of a fancy pants cup of coffee.
More curiously though, the third quarter expenses racked up to mail call-to-action letters and petitions to a reported thousand campaign volunteers who previously worked on the defeated 2008 personhood ballot measure at the much-ballyhooed summer press conference remain unknown and undisclosed.
There was no record of photocopying, envelope purchases or postage expenses on the financial report. Though the group’s Web site and subsequent news stories are replete with photos of volunteers happily collating packets and hauling tubs brimming with stamped envelopes into the post office.
Attempts to reach the 2010 ballot co-sponsors Gualberto Garcia Jones, director of Personhood Colorado, and Leslie Hanks, a long-time Colorado Right to Life activist, to determine who covered the estimated $1,000 cost of the mailing were not successful.
The peculiarities on Personhood Colorado campaign’s recent financial disclosure form may very well be an oversight by fledgling activists. Or it could point to a much more cynical attempt to thwart public accountability by a well-oiled theocratic political machine.
If, in fact, the undeclared outreach effort expenses were an oversight, it wouldn’t be the first time personhood activists have failed to fully report their financial activities.
