Colorado Common Cause filed complaints Wednesday with the state ethics commission against 12 Democratic state lawmakers, alleging they accepted funding from the “dark money” group One Main Street Colorado for a three-day retreat at a luxury hotel in Vail last October.

The complaints said the lawmakers accepted illegal gifts from One Main Street that violate Amendment 41, the state’s ethics amendment, also known as Article 29 of the state Constitution.

Under that amendment, lawmakers are not allowed to accept gifts exceeding $75 per person per year. But the cost of the rooms at the Sonnenalp Vail came in at about $25,000 for the lawmakers. The complaint claimed the hotel charges $316 to $500 per night.

Common Cause also said the lawmakers accepted food, drink and travel expenses paid for by One Main Street in addition to the hotel rooms.

In addition, “public records show One Main Street Colorado has been financed by the very same corporate groups whose lobbyists attended the retreat, including Xcel Energy, Occidental Petroleum and the Colorado Association of Realtors.”

The complaints are against the members of the Colorado Opportunity Caucus, which was formed last January and includes Chair Sen. Lindsey Daugherty of Arvada; Sens. Dylan Roberts of Frisco, Marc Snyder of Colorado Springs, Judy Amabile of Boulder and Kyle Mullica of Thornton; and Reps. Cecelia Espenoza and Sean Camacho, both of Denver; Karen McCormick of Longmont, Meghan Lukens of Steamboat Springs, Rebekah Stewart of Lakewood, Jacque Phillips of Thornton, William Lindstedt of Broomfield, Michael Carter of Aurora and Lesley Smith of Boulder.

The caucus’s co-founder, Rep. Shannon Bird of Westminster, did not participate in the group’s retreat, according to Daugherty.

The Colorado Common Cause complaint said that last summer, One Main Street organized a closed-door “Summit” for business advocates to “educate” Opportunity Caucus members on issues important to business interests.

Legislators couldn’t afford the $25,000 cost of their rooms at the hotel, the complaint said, “so they asked One Main Street to pay that bill. One Main Street paid for legislators’ rooms as requested and also appears to have funded other expenses of the legislators’ Summit, including staff effort and food and drink. In short, OMSC wielded undisclosed influence over a large number of Colorado legislators by paying significant costs of the event, including their individual travel expenses.”

The complaint said the hotel costs fall within the scope of Amendment 41’s gift ban and are not within any narrow exceptions to it.

All but two Opportunity Caucus members —Bird and Roberts —used the hotel rooms paid for by One Main Street.

Bird did not attend, but as chair of the caucus, “was party to the $25,000 solicitation” to One Main Street, the complaint said. Roberts lives in the area, and while he attended the retreat, he did not need a hotel room.

Bird is currently running for Congress, hoping to beat back seven other Democrats in the June 2026 primary and if successful, unseat U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Fort Lupton in the November 2026 election.

Her campaign manager, Eve Zhurbinskiy, told Colorado Politics that Bird has not been a leader in the Opportunity Caucus since August, “did not attend this event, and played zero role in planning it. This complaint is baseless and dishonest.”

The complaint noted an advisory opinion from the Independent Ethics Commission that said “covered individuals cannot use an association to do something on their behalf that they are otherwise prohibited from doing under Article XXIX.”

Under state law, the ethics commission can fine the lawmakers twice the cost of the expenditures.

The commission next meets on Nov. 18. In its 18-year history, it has never seen this many complaints filed against state lawmakers.

Before this week, the commission had accepted only four complaints against state lawmakers, three of which were tied to the amendment’s gift ban. All four were dismissed.

One Main Street was founded in 2021 by Andrew Short. In his LinkedIn profile, Short said One Main Street “is a statewide coalition uniting business, labor, and civic leaders to expand the middle class, strengthen local economies, and restore collaboration to public life.”

Under his leadership, the organization has “evolved into one of the state’s most influential cross-sector alliances, shaping legislation, driving local investment, and redefining how labor and business work together to deliver results.” He said he advises executives, policymakers and advocacy leaders on market-based solutions with public accountability.

The organization has an independent expenditure committee that only partially identifies its donors. From 2022 to 2024, the IEC raised $1.1 million, with almost $800,000 from One Main Street.

The IEC also took donations from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver, the Associated General Contractors, and firefighters and building trade unions.

The IEC paid for electioneering communications in 2024 on behalf of Phillips, Julie Duran Mullica for Adams County commissioner (Sen. Mullica’s wife) and former state Sen. Rhonda Fields, who won a seat on the Arapahoe County Commission last year.

Its most significant expenditures, totaling $505,000, were for the IEC A Whole Lot of People for Change, which claims to support “pragmatic candidates of all political parties.” In the 2024 primaries, only Democrats ran, such as Daugherty, Stewart, Phillips, Espenoza, Carter, Amabile, and Camacho.

State law prohibits IECs from coordinating with candidates.

The retreat, which One Main Street paid for, was first reported by The Colorado Sun last month.

The attorney for Colorado Common Cause is Scott Moss, formerly the director of the Division of Labor and Statistics at the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Moss left that position in July.

In June, he filed a lawsuit against Gov. Jared Polis, seeking an injunction that would prohibit Moss from divulging information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement about undocumented immigrants, a violation of state law. A Denver District Court judge granted that injunction.