Messenger: Unclear

Candidate: Joe O'Dea

Contest: U.S. Senate

Affiliation: R

Date delivered: June 14, 2022

Click here for message

Message type: mailer

Message tone: contrast

About the message:

This mailer from an unknown source contrasts Republican Joe O'Dea's support of a Biden Administration infrastructure plan with state Rep. Ron Hanks' opposition to the plan. O'Dea, a construction company owner, and Hanks, a retired veteran, are competing in the Republican U.S. Senate primary on June 28. Republicans are threatening to file criminal or legal complaints because the mailer says the state party "endorsed" Hanks, who won the nomination at the party's April 9 assembly. The mailer doesn't suggest voting for one candidate or the other, and it's likely it came from Democratic interests, though none have been reported to the Federal Election Commission as required by law.

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.