COLORADO SPRINGS — As voters in Colorado Springs decide who they want to represent their neighborhoods on the city council, the latest campaign finance filings show contributions funneling in from developers and real estate professionals.
It has become a talking point for some candidates on the campaign trail, who proudly assert they are not accepting any money from developers or business interests. This raises the question: "Why do developer donations matter in city elections?"
Developers and those with business interests in the city donate to campaigns in Colorado Springs every election cycle. While city elections generally don’t see massive amounts of money compared to, say, a statewide race, the donations can still make a significant difference for a local campaign.
“In a sense, all of politics is conflicts of interest and representatives trying to represent those interests,” said Michael Greenberger, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Denver.
Greenberger explained that while campaign donations can be a form of conflict of interest, the issue isn’t always black and white.
“It’s more of an ethical question than a legal one—whether those donations constitute unsuitable conflicts for politics compared to just representing your constituents' interests,” Greenberger said.
For example, Greenberger noted, if a representative is in a district with a large factory, promoting the interests of factory workers may not be seen as inappropriate. However, if contributions come from outside the district to promote something unpopular with constituents, that’s another story.
In a growing city like Colorado Springs, whether it’s in the interest of constituents for candidates to accept money from developers is ultimately up to voters.
The issue surfaced in June when City Councilman Dave Donelson raised concerns about a perceived conflict of interest regarding a development project involving Weidner Apartment Homes.
The City of Colorado Springs charter does not list campaign donations as a conflict of interest for city council members.
“Housing and growth can be particularly thorny issues across the U.S. and in Colorado as well,” Greenberger said.
Greenberger emphasized that for many voters, housing and growth are personal issues, as the value of their homes represents significant wealth.
“So people are going to be keenly aware of whether new growth is going to come into their neighborhood and how it will affect their personal financial well-being. Development and growth become really salient issues—more so than something like the minutiae of infrastructure spending,” Greenberger said.
The most recent campaign filings show thousands of dollars flowing to candidates from developers and people working in real estate in Colorado Springs.
News5 reviewed the latest campaign finance filings to determine where candidates are getting their funding. See the latest data below.
Methodology
Addresses of campaign donations were matched to the City of Colorado Springs City Council District map: https://coloradosprings.gov/CityCouncilDistricts
Donors were classified based on their residence: developers and groups who gave to candidates were classified as “PAC or Business.” Individual donors were listed as a business only if they belonged to a developer business.
Any donors with a P.O. Box were cross-referenced with voter registration. If voter records were not publicly available, the zip code of the P.O. Box was used to determine the city council district designation.
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