While local school board elections aren’t typically defined by their spending, one candidate’s failure to file timely campaign finance paperwork has exposed him to criticism from his opponent.
Because of a procedural error, Durango School District 9-R board candidate Matthew Sheldon did not report how much money he has raised and how much he has spent on his campaign by Tuesday’s filing deadline.
“I fully understand I made a major mistake, an amateur mistake,” Sheldon said.
His opponent, Brieanne Stahnke, seized the opportunity to blast Sheldon for the oversight.
“If you violate campaign finance laws, you’re not fit to serve on the school board,” she wrote in an email to the Herald. “The rules are clear and have been established to ensure fair elections. Transparency and integrity are key attributes for board members, and Mr. Sheldon has demonstrated in this campaign, and as campaign manager for (former state Rep. Michael) McLachlan, that he doesn’t follow the rules. Our children deserve better.”
Sheldon said he mistook his Candidate Affidavit for his Committee Registration Form, so he was unable to file expenses when he logged into the Colorado secretary of state’s website. He has had expenses because he is running extensive radio ads.
“I was the one who discovered the inaccuracy, so I self-reported to the Secretary of State’s Office, and that’s how everything got worked out,” he said. “They didn’t call me. I called them when I realized my mistake. They walked me through it so I knew how to change it for the future.”
Filing the committee paperwork should have happened at the same time as the affidavit filing, said Lynn Bartels, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office. Instead, Sheldon’s committee was set up Tuesday, which leads to another procedural situation, said Steve Bouey, campaign finance program manager for the Secretary of State’s Office.
The timing of the registration of the committee technically means Sheldon isn’t late on the financial report filing, so he does not have to file until the next deadline, Oct. 30, Bouey said.
Sheldon said he would have a complete financial report, including every contribution and expenditure, for that deadline.
The ramifications of his failure to register the committee are uncertain both on the financial side and on the impact to his campaign.
“The extent of our fining authority is $50 per day assessed for late filing of a campaign finance report,” Bouey said.
The only way Sheldon could be fined in these circumstances, Bouey said, would be if a citizen filed a complaint about his delay in registering a campaign committee.
“Our philosophy is to educate people, not beat them with a stick,” Bartels said. “If he took in contributions and made expenditures before registering a candidate committee, he could certainly be subject to a complaint. Even if he made expenditures out of his own pocket, they should also have been disclosed.”
The complaint would need to be filed with the Office of Administrative Courts, Bouey said.
“(Administrative law judges) generally fine about $50 a day for something like this, but they usually agree to something lower, somewhere in the middle,” he said.
Sheldon said he takes full responsibility for the error.
“But I don’t think it takes away from what I’m talking about in the election,” he said.
Meanwhile, Stahnke filed her campaign finance report on time, and her spending is in line with what has been typically seen in 9-R school board elections.
Her campaign committee reported spending about $723 in the race for the only contested seat for the board. Stephanie Moran is running unopposed for the other open seat.
Stahnke has received two $50 contributions, $9.95 toward the purchase of the domain name www.brieforboard.org, and has loaned her campaign $722.93. That was the amount she paid for the design of her logo and yard signs and the purchase of the yard signs.
“School boards didn’t used to be that hot of a race,” Bouey said, mentioning his office has been fielding a lot of calls on races across the state. “But with Jefferson County (undergoing a board recall), everyone’s starting to ask what’s happening in Poudre (School District), what’s happening in Durango?”
abutler@durangoherald.com
