From Harvey Weinstein to Garrison Keillor, returning campaign contributions made by men accused of sexual misconduct in recent months has become something of a routine for politicians.
In one case, however, a website accused of facilitating human trafficking and sexual exploitation is at the center of the problem.
The owners of Backpage.com, a classified ad website, have made generous contributions to several state Democratic parties. The Washington Times has reported extensively on those donations, noting in December, “Since 2010, the owners and their wives have shoveled about $99,000 to candidates and about $95,000 to Democratic parties in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, according to federal campaign finance data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.”
In January, the Washington Times reported that “the majority of the contributions to state parties since 2010 went to the Colorado Democratic Party, despite the Arizona residency of the Backpage owners. They handed over a total of $70,000 to the Colorado party, all in 2014.”
That’s compared with $15,000 to the New Mexico Democratic Party and $10,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party the same year. Many beneficiaries of Backpage contributions have made plans to return the cash in light of media reports connecting them to the company, including a PAC linked to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., earlier this month.
Despite raking in $70,000, more than any other state party, the Colorado Democratic Party has said nothing about whether it plans to unload the dirty money, even as #MeToo continues to sweep the nation, and even as scandal continues to plague Backpage. To add another layer, five Democrats are currently battling it out for their party’s state attorney general nomination, an office in which they would oversee investigations of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, crimes Backpage is alleged to have facilitated. (Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., for instance, brought pimping charges against three Backpage executives while she served as attorney general of California.)
The Republican Attorneys General Association wants those candidates to speak out, in no small part because they’re running to become Colorado’s top cop. “Enough is enough,” Communications Director Zack Roday said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The Colorado Democratic Party needs to stop hiding and do the right thing – donate this dirty money to a charity. Democratic candidates for public office – especially those running for attorney general – need to step up and make it clear, this is not right, donate the money.”
A disturbing 2017 report by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs concluded Backpage “knows that it facilitates prostitution and child sex trafficking,” “does not deny that its site is used for criminal activity, including the sale of children for sex,” and “knowingly concealed evidence of criminality by systematically editing its ‘adult’ ads.”
The Colorado Democratic Party did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s inquiry on whether it plans to return or donate the contributions.
