Twenty-Five Years Ago This Week: Complaints about “dirty tricks” being played as election day drew nearer were rising to a fever pitch. The Colorado Republican Party filed a formal complaint against state Sens. Mike Feeley, D-Lakewood, Ed Permutter, D-Golden, and Stan Matsunaka, D-Loveland, alleging that they had engaged in a conspiracy with State Board of Education candidate Jared Polis to circumvent the Fair Campaign Practices Act.

The complaint, sent to Secretary of State Donetta Davidson, charged that the listed Democrats had worked around the $25,000 per-year limit on individual contributions to the Colorado Democratic Party and that Polis had “laundered” $100,000 through district committees of the listed lawmakers.

According to reports cited in the complaint, Polis made three contributions to Senate Districts 15, 20, and 21 on Aug. 30 in amounts ranging from $20,000 to $25,000. The next day, the complaint alleged, the same Senate district committees contributed nearly the same amount to the Colorado Democratic Party.

“It is interesting to note that the registered agent for all three Senate District Committees is Sen. Mike Feeley and that the registered address for all Senate District Committees is the same as the Colorado Democratic Party,” said Republican State Chairman Bob Beauprez. “It is also curious practice to make exceptionally large contributions to Senate District 15 and and 20 where there is no race.”

Beauprez argued that the violation of the campaign finance laws constituted a class two misdemeanor and carried a civil penalty of double the amount contributed or received in violation of the limits.

“The charges are outrageous,” said Feeley. “I will be filling a libel suit against Beauprez and his aide Sean Murphy as soon as time allows. The Republicans passed this legislation. They’re going after us because they’re scared. They’re running the worst slate of right-wing nutballs and they’re afraid we are going to win.”

Feeley called Beauprez and Murphy “a couple of thugs.” Perlmutter echoed Feeley’s statement and called the GOP charges “trumped up.”

“These guys don’t know the law. If they were lawyers they’d be sanctioned by the court for not doing their due diligence on their malicious charges,” Perlmutter said.

The Colorado Democratic Party filed its own complaint with the Secretary of State, alleging that John Gonce, candidate for HD 1 against Fran Coleman, D-Denver, had failed to disclose the names and addresses of his contributors pursuant to the Fair Campaign Practices Act.

Gonce, the party contended, had not used forms provided by the Secretary of State, had not itemized his expenditures and had failed to report whether he has entered into any obligations.

Meanwhile in Jefferson County, Democratic state senate candidate Sue Windels urged her opponent, Sen. Jim Congrove, R-Arvada, to end the “push polling” in their campaign.

Windels delivered her written challenge to Congrove’s campaign headquarters, asking him to denounce all push polling and asked Congrove to respond within 12 hours.

Arvada Mayor Ken Fellmen, who said he was a victim of the push poll, called the tactics “hateful and ruthless.”

“I was shocked to hear the pollster trying to sway my support by making gross misrepresentation of Sue Windels’ record, which he could not or would not back up with facts,” Fellman said. “We should all agree that it is time to stop these deplorable tactics.”

Fellmen said that the calls were nearly identical to the ones used by Penn Pfiffner to defeat Linda Morton in the final days of the Senate District 21 primary.

Rachael Wright is the author of several novels including The Twins of Strathnaver, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing columnist to Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette and the Denver Gazette.