Messenger: Unclear

Candidate: Lauren Boebert

Contest: 3rd CD

Affiliation: R

Date delivered: Oct. 5, 2020

Click here for message

Message type: text

Message tone: positive

About the message:

This text message purports to be from Garfield County Sheriff Lou Valliero endorsing Republican Lauren Boebert, a Rifle restaurant owner, in the 3rd Congressional District over former Democratic state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush. "If you care about law and order, Lauren Boebert is the only candidate for you," the message says.

Federal law doesn't require disclosure from senders of such political text messages.

In May, Valliero uses the official Garfield County Sheriff's Facebook page to defend Boebert's reopening of her restaurant despite COVID-19 restrictions and endorsed her candidacy against five-term incumbent Congressman Scott Tipton, who lost in the primary.

About the messenger: If there's no indication of who delivered the message, well, it's unclear. This means there's no revelation on a robocall or "paid for by" on a mailer or door literature.

And, in fact, there's a loophole in Colorado law that doesn't require disclosure if a message doesn't explicitly say "vote for" or "vote against." And even candidates don't have to say if they delivered a message, according to the Secretary of State.

According to the Campaign Finance Institute, Colorado was one of only 10 states with such a loophole in 2016.

The messenger's money: This is the definition of "dark money." There's no way to know who paid.