ERIE, Colo. — Kelly Zuniga said she doesn’t have "the foggiest notion" who is behind an independent committee that registered to support her campaign. But she appreciates any support.
The group, called Erie for a Strong Future, registered with the Erie town clerk as an independent expenditure committee (IEC) in mid-March, vowing to support Zuniga and two candidates for Erie board of trustees, Ryan Kenward and Jeff Haverkate.
But since that filing, the committee hasn’t reported taking in any money or spending any money.
It is registered to an agent named Katie Kennedy. Kennedy also registered another IEC called Housing for Colorado, which distributed nearly $10,000 fund independent ads for Zuniga and another town trustee candidate named Christiaan Van Woudenberg. The group got the money from a coalition of homebuilders and developers from the metro area.
“They do that entirely on their own,” Zuniga said. “In fact, it’s a rule they can’t have any contact with a candidate so it’s not anything I was aware of until it happened.”
“It’s their constitutional right to exercise political speech -- anybody could do it.”
Her opponent in the mayoral race, Justin Brooks, attests the outside money coming in to support her campaign is coming from conservative groups looking to loosen regulations over oil and gas in the city.
“I believe the objective here is that if they’re able to elect a board of trustees that is sympathetic to oil and gas interests they’ll be able to lobby Colorado Oil And Gas Conservation Commission to allow waivers,” Brooks said.
While Brooks said he supports oil and gas as an industry, he believes some operations are allowed to close to neighborhoods in Erie.
“I do not believe that there is any place for oil and gas operations to happen close to residential neighborhoods,” Brooks said.
“We have tens of thousands of dollars being poured into this election and it’s not about local issues. It’s about special interests.”
Zuniga said she isn’t an automatic vote for the oil and gas industry.
“They like to turn everything into oil and gas,” she said of her opponents. “They think I drink it for breakfast. They absolutely have no understanding of who I am or what I stand for.”
“As a mayor or a member of the board it is really, really important and legally binding that you should be reviewing each application on the merits of the application that is in front of you. I don’t define myself for or against any industry.”
A third independent expenditure committee was involved in this years election. A group called the Better Jobs Coalition run by conservative donor Rick Enstrom. The group didn’t register with the Erie Town Clerk before it sent out ‘get out the vote’ mailers to people throughout Erie.
One flyer, which encourages people to drop their ballot off at a polling location lists the wrong address for the ballot box. Enstrom told 9NEWS Tuesday it was an error by his IEC and has since been corrected. Enstrom said the group mailed out new flyers to anyone who received one of the originals.