Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper reportedly used off-the-books donations from corporations and private foundations to fund positions in his office.
An investigation from CBS4 found the Democrat accepted millions in private donations to fund programs and positions in his gubernatorial office without any type of oversight from the public.
In one instance, Hickenlooper accepted a $25,000 donation to his office from Anadarko Petroleum a few days after a leaky gas pipe owned by the company exploded and killed two men. Hickenlooper accepted more than $300,000 from Anadarko over his tenure in the governor’s mansion. Hickenlooper accepted $10,000 from the grocery chain Safeway the same year he signed legislation to allow grocery stores to sell alcohol.
Corporations also said they were allowed to pay for policy positions in Hickenlooper’s office to create legislation for their industry. Donation records were not easily accessible, and some donations were made anonymously.
Governors in Colorado have been accepting these types of off-the-books donations for more than 20 years, but Hickenlooper has taken credit for drastically expanding the public-private partnerships that allowed his office to rake in millions of dollars over the eight years he was in control.
“We tried to be as transparent as we could be. We issued press releases,” Hickenlooper said.
Hickenlooper said he did not remember soliciting firms for money, adding, “I would sometimes speak to the chamber of commerce, or I would speak to the Colorado Association of Nonprofits.”
Members of Hickenlooper’s staff said there was no vetting process for accepting the donations, including no requirement to investigate possible conflicts of interest. Hickenlooper said he “walked away” from donations he thought were politically motivated.
“We didn’t blackball any industries. We tried to look at this as a frame of reference that a good company that wanted to make the state better … that they should have the opportunity. That was a good thing that they should have,” Hickenlooper said. “If there was a sniff of politics in it, then we walked away.”
The current governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, has five positions in his office funded by this type of private donation. State Sen. Dominick Moreno, the vice-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said he plans to draft legislation mandating some form of oversight for these donations.
“We have received a number of budget requests that seek to continue some of these positions that were originally seeded with private dollars. Ultimately, it’s the governor’s office that’s going to have to explain to voters what they use those funds for, and they’re going to be held accountable to voters,” Moreno said.
Hickenlooper, who is running for Senate following a failed presidential bid earlier this year, is facing an ethics investigation over his acceptance of gifts while in office. He was held in contempt by the state’s independent ethics commission last week after he refused to show up to a hearing after being subpoenaed for testimony.
