Posted June 18, 2026

 

Michael Bennet’s campaign for governor has yet again raised eyebrows with head-scratching violations of campaign finance law. The latest mishap by Bennet’s campaign raises more questions about whether Bennet is dipping into his Senate re-election campaign to cover costs for his campaign for governor – which would obviously be illegal.

 

Bennet’s governor campaign committee is legally registered as “Bennet for Governor.” His Senate campaign committee is legally registered as “Bennet for Colorado.”

 

Campaigns are required by law to add a disclaimer on ads they pay for – an important campaign finance law to ensure the public knows who or what is paying for the ads they see. But Bennet’s ads for his governor’s race disclose they were paid for by Bennet’s Senate re-election committee (“Bennet for Colorado”).

 

Coloradans deserve to know who is funding campaigns, and they expect candidates to follow the law.”
Nate Jackson, Weiser campaign spokesperson

 

If Bennet’s Senate re-election campaign actually paid for these ads for Bennet’s governor campaign – as the disclaimers say – that would be a violation of the Colorado Constitution, which expressly forbids federal candidate committees from contributing to state candidate committees.

 

But if these disclaimers are simply errors by the Bennet for Governor campaign, in that case, the campaign violated Colorado law by not accurately identifying in the ads who paid for them.

 

All of this raises the following key questions:

 

• Did the Bennet for Governor campaign botch the legally required disclosures and just make a mistake?
• If the disclosures are just wrong, when will the Bennet for Governor campaign remove all ads with this error from the air and have them corrected? Or will the Bennet for Governor campaign keep airing these ads that state inaccurate disclosures (which would be illegal and constitute knowingly illegal conduct that would subject them to possible enforcement actions)?
• How can voters expect Bennet to be the chief enforcer of Colorado’s state laws when he can’t even follow or understand basic laws himself – like Colorado’s campaign disclosure requirements?

 

This is not the first and only time the Bennet campaign has run afoul of campaign finance laws. Just last week, it was reported that the Colorado Secretary of State is enforcing the law against Bennet by bringing a legal action against him for illegally using his Senate campaign as a slush fund to backfill his campaign to be governor, even paying for limousines and New York City hotels.

 

“Michael Bennet’s desperate campaign is running out of time and money, leaning on the out-of-state billionaires, big corporations, and dark money groups bankrolling him to overcome his lack of Colorado-based support,” said Weiser campaign spokesperson Nate Jackson. “Coloradans deserve to know who is funding campaigns, and they expect candidates to follow the law. Once again, the Bennet campaign appears to be ignoring campaign finance law.”

 

Colorado law requires that any candidate committee that spends over $1,000 in a year on an election communication must “include in the communication a disclaimer statement” (1). Both statute and Secretary of State rule requires that such communications state “the name of the person making the communication” (2) by using the phrasing “paid for by (full name of the person paying for the communication)” (3) disclosing to the public “the name of the person that paid for the communication”. (4) Penalties and fines for violations of these rules are administered by the Secretary of State