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Carbondale fire campaign representative didn’t know deadlines, election date

Elise Thatcher

  The Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District is asking voters for a property tax increase in this fall’s election. The group campaigning for the measure missed the latest campaign finance filing because they didn’t know about the deadline. The representative in charge of submitting that information wasn’t aware of the campaign finance reporting schedule, nor the date of the election.

“Citizens for a Safe Community” raised $5000 in this election cycle, to spend on supporting a two-year tax increase for the fire District. Campaign representatives were supposed to submit a report last week showing how the money was used, but the Carbondale-based lawyer charged with turning it in, Tom Adgate, says he didn’t know about the deadline. He also didn’t know the election ends tomorrow, Tuesday November 3rd.

After learning about the filing deadline, Adgate submitted a report on Monday. He, along with a Minnesota-based LLC, contributed most of the $5000 in the campaign coffers. Fire Chief Ron Leach also chipped in $1000. The latest filing shows $4700 dollars went towards newspaper ads in October. About half of that was actually supposed to be included in the previous campaign finance filing, which was also turned in late. Adgate expects most of the $400 in late fees will be waived by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, though a spokesperson for that agency says there is no record of a waiver request.

Adgate hopes voters will not be affected by his lack of knowledge about campaign rules. The Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District covers more than three hundred square miles and relies on volunteers. It is severely short on funding after a larger property tax measure failed two years ago.

 

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