Sara Van Cleve
Following a complaint to the Secretary of State regarding a failure to comply with donor-information regulations, Sen. Evie Hudak’s campaign has corrected her filing with the state and has returned contributions to the donors involved.
In the complaint, Andrew Struttman, of Colorado Springs, claimed Hudak violated a regulation regarding campaign-contribution filings.
A hearing to consider the complaint and determine whether charges will be filed has been scheduled for Friday, July 27, in the Office of Administrative Courts, 633 17th St., Denver.
The regulation reads, “If occupation and employer information is not provided for contributions of $100 or more, and the committee is unable to gather the information within 30 days after receipt of the contribution, the contribution shall be returned to the contributor no later than the 31st day after receipt.”
The complaint claims Hudak, D-Westminster, who is up for re-election this fall, failed to provide employer and occupation information for eight donors whose contributions ranged from $100 to $400, and also failed to return the checks in the designated time. Rachel Zenzinger, Hudak’s campaign manager and Arvada’s mayor pro tem, said the contributors were contacted about their employment information in November and December 2011, but never returned the calls, and the issue slipped through the cracks.
Zenzinger said the failure to provide employment information for the eight donors was solely due to an administrative error.
“There were some small administrative errors that had taken place with regard to employer name and occupation with some contributions that were given back in November and December,” Zenzinger said.
“Those errors have been corrected, and the checks have been returned to the donors per the rules of the Secretary of State.”
The Secretary of State media representative could not be reached for comment. If the campaign is charged the $18,400, Zenzinger said, she doesn’t believe it will have a large impact on Hudak’s re-election campaign.
“We are actually very grateful that they came to us and pointed it out so we could fix it,” she said.
Zenzinger said the campaign has implemented new internal policies to ensure the same errors do not happen again.