Colorado Democracy Alliance - Exposed Part 2

Hat Tip to Brad @ Face The State

September 30, 2008
Face The State Staff Report

This is the second in a week-long series making public for the first time internal documents from the Colorado Democracy Alliance, a secretive, high-level organization active in coordinating Democrat campaign activities. Read Monday's installment for information on CoDA's organizational and financial structure. Today we examine the individuals involved in the operation and support of the Alliance.

Today in the Face The State Reading Room:

Members in the Colorado Democracy Alliance include some of the state's most influential high-level fundraisers and aides to some of the state's highest elected Democrats.

An invitation list to the 2006 CoDA election night party (PDF), held in a swanky suite at downtown Denver's new Hyatt reads as a who's who of powerful western liberals. Members of the "Gang of Four," core financiers of Colorado's liberal infrastructure (Tim Gill, Rutt Bridges, Jared Polis and Pat Stryker) are listed as "members and donors" alongside Mitch Ackerman of the Service Employees International Union, Jenifer Brandeberry of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, Boulder "activist-philanthropist" Linda Shoemaker and Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts.

CoDA "strategy group" members (PDF) include liberal activists Bobby Clark and Michael Huttner of ProgressNow, Chantell Taylor of Colorado Ethics Watch, and Jason Bane, a former SEIU PR man, blogger and Jeffco commissioner candidate. John Stocks of the National Education Association, Carrie Doyle of Colorado Conservation Voters and Democrat go-to attorney Mark Grueskin are also on the exclusive invite list. Click here (PDF) for the full roster. When interviewed by Face The State for a recent story about political litigation, both Grueskin and Taylor played down the role of their legal complaints as a campaign tool.

Also involved in the operation of CoDA is a group called America Votes, an organization which until recently was run by U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall's wife, Maggie Fox. A September 21, 2006 high-level CoDA "election protection" meeting was held at America Votes' offices during Fox's tenure (PDF). A similar meeting was held at the now-defunct think tank, the Bighorn Center for Public Policy (PDF).

The Colorado Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union and a local affiliate of the NEA, served as a frequent meeting space for Democrat campaign officials and CoDA leaders (PDF). A September 28 "election protection meeting" agenda (PDF) includes discussion of appropriate places to "house" money in 501(c)(3) non-profits and a discussion of election-season advertising.

Minutes from an October 11 CoDA meeting (PDF) show the coalition had contemplated pressuring Denver election officials to use mothballed election machines during the 2006 vote. The document indicates CoDA estimating a ten-minute wait time at the polls would have the coalition "down 40,000 votes," with the additional voting machines a possible method to bolster turnout of the city's largely liberal electorate.

The CEA, SEIU, AFL-CIO and CTLA are listed as "institutional members" in an undated "confidential" CoDA membership roster. Al Yates, former president of the Colorado State Unversity and confidante to Stryker, is listed as "interim executive director."

Visit Face The State Wednesday for a closer look at CoDA's "strategy group" and its plans to influence Colorado politics.