Messenger: Senate Majority Fund

Candidate: Brittany Pettersen

Contest: Senate District 22

Affiliation: D

Date delivered: Oct. 15, 2018

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Message type: mailer

Message tone: negative

About the message:

This mailer from Republican super PAC Senate Majority Fund says state Rep. Brittany Pettersen wants to take people's money and property away to provide more government. Pettersen is running for an open Senate seat in southern Jefferson County against Republican Tony Sanchez.

Among the claims:

• Her vote for a measure to improve family leave by charging an insurance premium of less than 1 percent of wages for all employees in Colorado. Because the program would have been considered an enterprise under state law, it wouldn't have qualified as a tax; higher taxes require voter approval. The $3.5 billion number appears to be the maximum amount the measure would have raised over a few years. 
• Her sponsorship of a bill to study the feasibility of a state-operated retirement plan for private sector workers. The measure died in the Senate. It's unclear if the program would have been mandatory, since the bill only called for a study.
• Her vote for a bill tthat would have allowed the Department of Revenue to sell confiscated property when people in bankruptcy owe state taxes. The bill died in the Senate.

About the messenger: The Senate Majority Fund is a state-level super PAC that supports Republican candidates for Colorado's state Senate and opposes Democratic candidates.

The messenger's money: The group has raised about $2 million since Jan. 1, 2017, including $200,000 from Noble Energy, $77,200 from Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, $64,000 from the Colorado Apartment Association, $45,000 from The Anschutz Corp. and $35,000 from Encana Oil & Gas,