October 13, 2005 08:00 AM UTC

Disastrous Press Day for Jon Caldara

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• by: Colorado Pols

This is the sort of meltdown we would normally predict for right after a contentious election. For it to happen before the election suggests that Jon Caldaraand maybe the Independence Institute as an wholeis flaming out beyond anybody’s control.

Major Independence Institute financier and board member Greg Stevinson has had enough:

Greg Stevinson has resigned from the board of the Independence Institute, saying he is “uncomfortable” with the institute president’s aggressive attacks on Referendums C and D.

“I do not, however, remember us ever getting this close to knowingly misrepresenting facts and walking so close to the precipice of the campaign finance laws.”

The source of the money Caldara has spent on ads opposing C&D is about to be revealed, and to nobody’s surprise:

Mark Grueskin, the attorney representing the Yes on C & D campaign, told the court the ads were clearly political and disclosure of who paid for them was required by the law.

Speculation about who might have paid for the ads has centered on Americans for Tax Relief, a group headed by Washington, D.C., lobbyist Grover Norquist, and Freedom Works, an advocacy group founded by House Majority Leader Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas.

The only option that’s left to Caldara is procedural delay, to thwart further disclosure of what is likely to be an unsavory narrative until after the election. That effort has met with some success, but it does nothing for the Institute’s long-term viability.

Caldara has taken such a lead in the fight against C&D that there really isn’t anybody left to take up that banner now that he’s stumbling. Marc Holtzman will try mightily to assume “leadership” of the “movement,” but his own ulterior-motive fundraising against the referenda may poison his credibilitymuch like former state senate president John Andrews’ invocation of Saddam Hussein didn’t help things.

Most C&D opponents outside Caldara’s immediate orbit are furious with him over the way he has damaged and distracted from an effort that seemed certain to prevail last spring. With the possibility of the Institute’s financial support (and even office space) being curtailed after these scandals and Stevinson’s public departure, real questions are emerging as to whether or not Colorado’s highest profile think-tank will survive this election cycle at all.