
As the Colorado Springs Gazette’s Marianne Goodland reports, the ongoing internal conflict within the morally headless Colorado House GOP minority caucus escalated again yesterday with the filing of a campaign finance complaint against Rep. Ron Weinberg of Loveland, who is already beset by allegations of serial sexual harassment that scuttled his short-lived bid to serve as the next Minority Whip.
The complaint from fellow Republican Rep. “Boxwine” Brandi Bradley of Littleton itemizes some expenditures by Weinberg from his campaign account that at first glance are indeed not easy to justify:
Most notably, Weinberg, according to his TRACER account, contributed $1,955 on Sept. 24, 2024, to the Maccabi Tel Aviv football (soccer) club of Israel.
The contribution is listed as a gift to the club.
Bradley’s complaint also identified 16 times in 2024 when Weinberg spent campaign dollars at the Springs Barbershop in Loveland. The expenditures, which totaled more than $1,000 and which ranged from $45 to $80, covered apparel, “other office expense,” dues and subscriptions, “other event expense,” “other promotional expense,” or cleaning service.
Bradley wrote in her complaint that the gift to the football club may have violated federal as well as state law.
16 haircuts in a year on Weinberg’s donors’ dime seems like…well, a lot of haircuts to us, but grooming standards vary on the campaign trail we guess. Other questionable expenses outlined by Rep. Bradley in her complaint include several hundred dollars at Joseph A. Bank, a hefty tab at the Brown Palace Hotel from the final day of the session, and almost $400 on cigars from a New Jersey tobacconist. Weinberg also spent a couple hundred on apparel from a store called “Trump it Up,” but buying Trump swag could be argued to have more of a campaign-related purpose than donating to a soccer team on the other side of the world.
It will be up to the Campaign Finance Enforcement Team in the Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s office to sort out what among these expenses isn’t allowable, and we wouldn’t judge too hastily on a matter where the standards might be more lenient in general than many people think. What’s clear is that the revenge campaign by Rep. Bradley against Weinberg isn’t over–and between this latest complaint, the controversy over Weinberg allegedly breaking into colleagues’ offices, and the unresolved allegations of sexual misconduct, Rep. Weinberg’s position is getting closer to untenable. The real story here could be one of a distinctly creepy dude who was allowed to carry on until an intra-GOP leadership fight forced his creepiness into the spotlight.
That’s not a good look for anyone in the building with an (R) after their name.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
Comments