September 20, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Brazil: Politics: State Government: Durango Herald: "We don't think anything was done irregularly," said Pat Waak, who was elected chairwoman of the state party after the 2004 election. "It's just that there was no documentation."
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September 20, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Brazil: Politics: State Government: Durango Herald: "We don't think anything was done irregularly," said Pat Waak, who was elected chairwoman of the state party after the 2004 election. "It's just that there was no documentation."
"We don't think anything was done irregularly," said Pat Waak, who was elected chairwoman of the state party after the 2004 election. "It's just that there was no documentation."
"Our first priority is to clean this up. Our second priority is to make sure it never happens again," Waak said. Pat Waak, Chairman of the Democratic Party in Colorado, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil in the 1960's.
"We don't think anything was done irregularly," said Pat Waak, who was elected chairwoman of the state party after the 2004 election. "It's just that there was no documentation."
Dems explain use of campaign money
September 20, 2005
By Joe Hanel | Herald Denver Correspondent
DENVER - The Colorado Democratic Party ran afoul of several campaign-finance rules in the 2002 election, according to a federal audit.
The state party has corrected most of the errors, but it is still trying to account for $3.18 million in potentially illegal spending.
The leader of the state party said the problem stems from poor bookkeeping during the heat of the campaign.
"We don't think anything was done irregularly," said Pat Waak, who was elected chairwoman of the state party after the 2004 election. "It's just that there was no documentation."
The Federal Election Commission released an audit report Friday that criticized the state Democratic Party for several violations, including:
• Misstating the cash balances of its bank account by more than a quarter of a million dollars.
• Not listing the occupations for almost a third of its donors.
• Failing to account for $263,000 spent for three Democrats running for Congress in 2002. All three lost.
• Spending up to $8.43 million from its state account on federal campaigns. Parties have to use separate accounts because state and federal campaign laws are different.
The party has cleared up most of the violations, according to the FEC audit.
However, Democrats still are looking for invoices from companies to show that $3.18 million of mail and television ads paid for by the state account were indeed permissible. The FEC said in a news release that it has issued subpoenas for records from "several firms."
All Durango Area Real Estate Listings
"Our first priority is to clean this up. Our second priority is to make sure it never happens again," Waak said.
The FEC could decide to punish the Colorado Democrats as a result of the audit. Penalties range from $5,000 up to 100 percent of the amount in question. The FEC negotiates the final amount of fines, if any, with each individual party.
The audit also noted that the party couldn't explain why it listed a cash balance on Jan. 1, 2001, of $306,115, when bank records show it had only $26,127.
Waak hired a consultant, Darryl Tattrie, to help clear up the problems in April.
Parties have to keep their records for only three years, so Tattrie couldn't explain the error.
"We just don't know. There are no records back that far," he said. "We were lucky to get what we did."
The Colorado Democrats agree with the FEC's assessment of the party's bank accounts, and the party can file a correction and use the proper numbers in its reports from now on, Tattrie said.
If the FEC does decide to punish the party, it won't announce it until it has settled on a fine with the Colorado Democrats, an FEC spokeswoman said.
Reach Denver Correspondent Joe Hanel at here
When this story was posted in September 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Durango Herald
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Brazil; Politics; State Government
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