February 24, 2022 03:14 PM UTC

Don't Be The Staffer Who Leaves The Money In The Bathroom

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Marianne Goodland at the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog has seen plenty of unusual situations inside the Colorado Capitol, including at least a couple that involved the building’s too-few and always in demand bathrooms. But a discovery last night in a Capitol bathroom by a House staffer of an envelope full of checks made out to the Senate Majority Fund, the Colorado Senate GOP’s “independent” expenditure committee, is causing controversy of a different odor than the lavatorial norm:

How many checks were in the envelope and how much total are not known, although a source mentioned they’re in the five figures…

Sen. Paul Lundeen of Monument, who is in charge of the majority fund, told Colorado Politics he won’t accept those checks, given that they were left “on site.”

“It’s a best practice in my opinion” not to accept contributions within the Capitol, Lundeen said. [Pols emphasis]

At the very least, it’s a huge headache to have to call back all of the donors who wrote these checks and get them to write new checks, which we assume is what Sen. Paul Lundeen plans to do since Republicans need every dime they can get this year. Lundeen hasn’t disclosed where exactly the checks were collected from the donors, but as head of the Senate Majority Fund it’s Lundeen’s responsibility to ensure they are not left in the open to be picked up by passers-by. If that’s what happened, Lundeen or the staffer who let this envelope slip whilst nature was calling created a lot of needless work for themselves.

Ands that’s assuming you believe Lundeen about not accepting checks “under the Dome.” John Boehner established a precedent for that sort of thing in Washington many years ago, which led to a rule in Congress prohibiting handing out checks on the floor of the U.S. House like payday. Those were checks directly to candidates, of course, not the “soft money” Lundeen raises from donors. Does Lundeen not know where this money came from? We’re having trouble understanding why Lundeen would just arbitrarily declare these checks to be void.

It’s all very weird, and it raises questions that Lundeen could but probably will never answer.

Lundeen’s donors can only hope the actual campaign is less sloppy than the fundraising.