A “dark money” group that put tens of millions of dollars behind Democratic candidates and progressive causes became the latest target of a campaign finance complaint, the most recent in a volley of partisan carping over which side’s secretly funded groups must show the public who is financially supporting them.

The newest complaint goes after Sixteen Thirty Fund, which gave $17.2 million to Democratic causes, and was filed on Dec. 20 by Cory Gaines of Sterling, who calls himself a conservative Libertarian but is registered as an independent voter.

Gaines cited a complaint filed last week against North Fund, which is affiliated with Sixteen Thirty through ties to Arabella Advisors. Influence Watch, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Republican-leaning donors, said Arabella manages four nonprofits that “serve as incubators and accelerators for a range of other left-of-center nonprofits: the New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Windward Fund.” All but the Windward Fund have made contributions to support or oppose ballot measures or to support Democratic candidates in Colorado.

Sixteen Thirty is a major contributor to North Fund, with donations totaling $19.4 million, according to a November, 2021 Politico report.

Gaines told Colorado Politics he had heard about the complaint against the North Fund and was “inspired” to look at what the Sixteen Thirty Fund was doing. 

His complaint asks that Sixteen Thirty register an issue committee to cover its spending in 2020 and 2021 and to disclose its donors.

“In two years, they spent half of what they spent in the previous 7 years,” Gaines wrote. He said the group never registered as an issue committee, and has not fully disclosed its donors.

“This clearly shows that since 2020, Sixteen Thirty Fund have been making it a major purpose of their organization to support or oppose both ballot issues and candidates in this state while simultaneously refusing to file as an issue committee in that year and forward,” his complaint said. 

Gaines is also taking a page out of the complaints filed both against Unite for Colorado and the North Fund, citing the “flexible standard” for a 180-day statute of limitations under which campaign finance complaints are supposed to be filed. That first arose in a 2020 complaint against attorney Suzanne (Staiert) Taheri, who violated state campaign finance laws by filing tax returns instead of a personal financial disclosure statement when she ran unsuccessfully for the Senate District 27 seat in 2020.

Gaines wrote in his complaint that he was unaware of the “new standard” until he read a story in Complete Colorado on the North Fund complaint on Dec. 16.

In 2020, Sixteen Thirty contributed about $5.8 million to campaigns on ballot measures. Its biggest contributions – more than $3 million – went to Colorado Families First, which advocated in favor of the successful Proposition 118, which sought to create a paid family and medical leave insurance program. For Proposition 113, which sought to ban abortions after 22 weeks, Sixteen Thirty gave the opposition campaign, Abortion Access for All, $406,167.

Also in 2020, Sixteen Thirty gave money to independent expenditure committees spending to back Democratic candidates for the state House and Senate. It gave the IEC supporting House Democrats, Coloradans Creating Opportunities, $250,000, and $1.25 million to Leading Colorado Forward, which helped Senate Democratic candidates. On June 23, Sixteen Thirty put another $75,000 into Coloradans Creating Opportunities.

The complaint against Sixteen Thirty Fund comes as new disclosures by Unite For Colorado, a major Republican dark money nonprofit group, reveal a web of active political front groups whose funding was not previously disclosed. The Colorado Sun first reported the groups bankrolled by Unite For Colorado, which , new tax filings show, has financially backed several other organizations that have acted to advance Republican causes.

Dark money organizations engage in electioneering activities without disclosing the source of their funding by virtue of IRS nonprofit rules or other business and campaign finance regulations that don’t require donor disclosures.

Among the groups funded by Unite For Colorado was Colorado Neighborhood Coalition, a group that lobbied the state’s redistricting commissions this year. Colorado Neighborhood Coalition urged the state’s newly restructured redistricting commissions to adopt specific redistricting approaches, but routinely declined to say who was paying them.

Unite Colorado gave Colorado Neighborhood Coalition $375,000 in 2020, the new disclosures show.  

Colorado Neighborhood Coalition, led by former Republican lawmakers and Republican operatives, also held training sessions for people interested in learning about the redistricting process and how to get involved. In at least one case, the group helped the Colorado Farm Bureau draft maps that were presented to redistricting commissioners without disclosing Colorado Neighborhood Coalition’s hand in the effort, drawing criticism over transparency concerns. 

Colorado Neighborhood Coalition was also the subject of a complaint accusing the group of violating lobbying rules in the course of its redistricting efforts. The complaint was found credible and has been referred to an administrative law judge for further action. The group also held private meetings and communications with some of the redistricting commissioners.

According to the 2020 tax returns, the other recipients of money from Unite were the conservative education group Ready Colorado ($1.365 million), Colorado Rising State Action ($175,00), the Independence Institute ($250,00), Defend Colorado, which backed three failed ballot measures in Denver last month ($330,000), the Public Trust Institute, which launched ethics complaint against then-Gov. John Hickenlooper ($310,000), the Colorado Taxpayers Advocate Fund ($368,000) and Colorado PRFRS, which helped draw Republican redistricting maps in 2011 ($200,000). The latter includes on its board former Republican state Reps. Matt Knoedler and Rob Fairbanks.

Taheri, the attorney whose personal finance disclosures were found to violate state laws, represents Unite For Colorado, and said the group intends to appeal the order to disclose its donors.

“We’re appealing every part of the opinion,” Taheri said. “We have until January to file something.”

Campaign finance complaint filed by Cory Gaines of Sterlilng against the dark-money group Sixteen Thirty Fund.Unite for Colorado 990s, courtesy Colorado Sun.