The top spokesman for Colorado Democrats told a local paper that both parties in the state engaged in financing activities that resembled money laundering.  In an interview with the Colorado Independent, Matt Inzeo, the communications director for the Colorado Democratic Party, said, “In most other lines of work, moving money from committee to committee and finally using a brand new committee no one has heard of to buy the ads would be called money laundering.”

The Internal Revenue Service defines money laundering as “the process of disguising criminal proceeds and may include the movement of clean money through the United States with the intent to commit a crime in the future[.]” Inzeo did not specify which funds used to purchase ad buys in the state came from criminal activities. Although both major parties in the U.S. regularly use various committees to fund political activities, Inzeo’s comments appeared to be a direct attack on the Colorado GOP and so-called 527 committees funded by Republican donors and activists.

In 2010, the Denver Post looked into the various liberal 527’s and so-called Super Political Action Committees, or Super PACs, comparing their cash haul to that of conservative outside groups. Their analysis showed a glaring disparity, giving Democrats a clear advantage that year.

While the comparison in this chart is stunning, the Denver Post also provided readers with a glimpse into the “money laundering” operations of the Left — operations that should stun campaign finance skeptics like Inzeo.

Colorado liberals are no stranger to the various ways of shuffling money between finance committees. In fact, they have managed rather well, turning a once-solid red state into a purple state. Accountability for Colorado, a liberal 527 whose top donor is the Colorado Education Association, and which the Pueblo Chieftan called “despicable” for their ads in the 2010 election cycle, gave $250,000 in a single check to the Neighborhood Project, a liberal 527 that received $100,000 checks from teachers unions and AFSCME according to a 2010 Denver Post article . The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) gave Accountability for Colorado $200,000, also in a single check.

These charts barely scratch the surface of the vast liberal financing network in Colorado. As previously reported by Media Trackers, well-funded national organizations are regularly used by the Left to coordinate and fund progressive “grassroots” efforts in states like Colorado. Money flows into the coffers of special interests and candidates from such sources as State Voices, the General Service Fund, Democracy Alliance, and more.

Based on the last election cycle, Democratic leaning 527’s totaled 99% of all non federal 527 activity in Colorado political races. Matt Inzeo should be careful about throwing around legal terms like “money laundering”. Especially when the actions he seems so critical of are relied upon so heavily by those funneling money to Democratic and progressive candidates.

Originally posted at Media Trackers Colorado