September 05, 2014 01:04 PM UTC

GOP's Super Saturday: Sure Looks "Authorized" To Us

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• by: Colorado Pols

Candidates across the state will be out in force this weekend as field campaigns begin in earnest. For the Colorado Republican Party, tomorrow is "Super Saturday"–a coordinated door-knocking and phone banking campaign by the party and targeted Republican candidates.

The interplay between "independent" efforts and official campaign activity, and the disclaimers needed to differentiate between them, can sometimes lead to confusion for individual voters. Case in point is an email we got from Bob Beauprez's campaign, inviting us to join Super Saturday:

Got that? The Colorado GOP's Super Saturday is "not authorized by an candidate or candidate's committee."

Except in Beauprez's case, Super Saturday appears to be very much authorized! And the message announcing it, for us anyway, was "paid for by Beauprez for Colorado." Do you see how that might be a little confusing? Don't get us wrong, we're not alleging any violation here–in fact, the "independent" disclaimer for the party's event and Beauprez's "paid for by" on his email are both likely necessary to ensure compliance for the respective entities.

So maybe the real problem is the legal fiction that a party's activities are not "authorized" by the candidates they're obviously working to benefit–to the point that the candidate is promoting their "independent" efforts? As Beauprez's email demonstrates, the whole pretense is kind of silly.

But to acknowledge that would open up its own can of legal worms…