Denver City Council is considering changes to the city’s Fair Elections Fund — a voter-approved program that gives public money to political candidates.
The fund gives matching money to political candidates who participate. For every dollar they raise from donors, they can get nine more dollars from the city.
The program has been praised for allowing more people to be competitive in fundraising, but it also has raised concerns as the city has awarded millions of taxpayer dollars to dozens of candidates.
District 5 City Councilmember Amanda Sawyer and District 9 City Councilmember Darrell Watson have pushed for changes.
Their proposal would:
- Ban anonymous donations from the matching program.
- Place new restrictions on how FEF-funded campaigns can spend public dollars.
- Allow candidates to raise the same amount of money per donor, whether or not they participate. Currently, some FEF candidates can get more money per candidate (including the public match) than non-participating candidates.
- Empower the Clerk and Recorder’s office to investigate campaign finance violations, even if it's not in response to a formal public complaint.
- Set new rules for political debates that are required for participating candidates — including restrictions on what sorts of questions can be asked of candidates.
The idea was discussed Tuesday at the Finance and Governance Committee meeting, but the committee delayed its vote on the matter until Jan. 28.
The Fair Elections Fund was first used in the 2023 municipal race.
During the election, donations to FEF candidates were matched 9-to-1 with taxpayer dollars. Each individual contribution could earn up to $450 in matching funds.
In all, the fund distributed $7.7 million to 47 candidates. Individual candidates could get up to $750,000 in total from the fund.
The program’s first year coincided with the most expensive election in Denver history. Mayor Mike Johnston participated in the program, receiving more than $600,000 in taxpayer dollars for his campaign. Meanwhile, an independent committee supporting him received record-breaking donations from out-of-state billionaires.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money also went to obscure and unopposed candidates.
"The Fair Elections Fund has undeniably reshaped Denver's electoral landscape, achieving its goals and serving as a beacon for transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement in the realm of local democracy," Clerk and Recorder Paul López wrote in a post-election review of the FEF.
López, who ran unopposed, received $62,000 from the fund for his campaign against nobody.
Participating candidates weren't allowed to take money from companies or political action committees.
However, as Johnston’s campaign showed, those rules don’t apply to independent groups that spend money on elections.
What's the big idea?
Under the changes, campaign dollars from the FEF could see more spending restrictions. They would be banned from using public dollars to pay for things like concert tickets, country club memberships and rent.
“If you're a candidate running for an office, you shouldn't be spending money in ways you can't [as an elected official],” Watson said.
Those restrictions likely couldn't apply to privately raised dollars because of First Amendment protections, according to the City Attorney’s Office.
The proposal would ban anonymous donations, including cryptocurrency, Sawyer said. Currently, anonymous contributions are only “strongly discouraged.”
The proposal would ensure that people running the FEF debates don’t have ties to the candidates. It also would require that debate stages are accessible — avoiding situations like Councilmember Chris Hinds faced when he was unable to reach the stage at one debate.
“Debate moderators' … questions have to be fair, they have to be neutral,” Sawyer said of the proposed changes. Council is still considering how that would work.
Meanwhile, the Clerk and Recorder would be empowered to investigate campaign finance violations. Administrative hearing officers, who could not be full time Clerk and Recorder employees, would have subpoena power and the right to issue fines over how city funds were used.
Another goal, Watson said, is to simplify the election code.
“Most of the significant, major parts that voters… voted for will remain,” Watson said.
Council plans to host a virtual and in-person town hall to get voter feedback in January.
Making changes to the voter-approved policy would require the approval of at least nine of Denver's 13 council members.
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