Messenger: Leading Colorado Forward

Candidate: Suzanne Staiert

Contest: Senate District 27

Affiliation: R

Date delivered: Sept. 19, 2020

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Message type: mailer

Message tone: negative

About the message:

This mailer from a Democratic super PAC uses old, now-deleted tweets from former Deputy Secetary of State Suzanne Staiert implying she's a "Trump-like Twitter troll." The tweets criticzed the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission at a time when her boss, former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, was being investigated by the commission. Gessler was found in violation of ethics laws for using state money to travel to a political event, and his unsuccessful appeals of the decision cost the state more than $500,000 in legal fees.

Staiert, a Republican, is now running for the open Senate District 27 seat based in Centennial against Chris Kolker. She's being criticized for her role in successful ethics charges brought against former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is running for U.S. Senate. She was director of the organization that filed the charges and followed through with legal action before the state ethics commission.

About the messenger:

Leading Colorado Forward is a state super PAC working to elect Democrats to the state Senate.

The messenger's money:

The group's donors include national nonprofit America Votes, New Belgium Brewery founder Kimberly Jordan, Noble Energy, Extraction Oil& Gas, Unitedhealth Group PAC and a range of other businesses and individuals.