FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Representative Kent D. Lambert
January 15, 2009
(Denver) State Representative Kent Lambert filed initial arguments Tuesday in the Colorado Court of Appeals against the Bill Ritter for Governor Campaign and the Ritter Inaugural Committee.
After Bill Ritter's campaign for governor in 2006, Ritter's Inaugural Committee illegally paid off Ritter's campaign debt to the tune of nearly a quarter million dollars.
In an apparent effort to fix blame, Ritter accused his campaign manager, Greg Kolomitz, of criminal violations; but the District Attorney found Kolomitz did nothing criminal.
"If Kolomitz was not to blame, who was?" asked Lambert. "The people of Colorado need to know that the Ritter Campaign committed several major violations of the Colorado Constitution and campaign finance laws. We deserve the right to fairly argue this case in court."
The complaint states that Ritter's Inaugural Committee funds, which were mostly raised from corporate donations, were used to pay for Ritter's campaign debt and staff salaries. The violations include receiving excessive campaign donations over the legal limits set by Colorado law, accepting illegal contributions from corporations, and failure to report campaign contributions.
Rep. Lambert stated, "We initially raised the question about whether the governor could be trusted with the peoples' money when he couldn't even manage his own campaign finances. The current state budget crisis leaves little doubt that he is a bad budget manager. He still needs to be held accountable for the illegal fund raising methods that helped get him into office."
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