Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe O'Dea wants the courts, federal election authorities and Colorado prosecutors to stop an anonymous political group from distributing flyers that compare O'Dea with GOP primary rival Ron Hanks.
O'Dea, the owner of a construction company and a first-time candidate for office, alleges the mailers defame him and violate multiple laws in complaints filed late Wednesday with the U.S. District Court for Colorado, the Federal Election Commission and several district attorneys around the state.
O'Dea and Hanks, a first-term state lawmaker from Cañon City, are seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in the June 28 primary election. Ballots started going out to most state voters last week.
While the entity paying for the flyers is unknown — O'Dea and his attorney refer to it as "John Doe Organization" in the complaints — they are arriving in voters' mailboxes at the same time Democratic groups are pouring money into TV ads targeting O'Dea and Hanks in what appears to be an effort to boost the more conservative Hanks among the Republican Party's base.
The mailers, O'Dea argues in the federal lawsuit, are part of a "scheme to defraud citizens of Colorado in an attempt to divert votes away from O’Dea."
In his complaint to the FEC, O'Dea warns that if commissioners don't "provide immediate relief to stop these willful violations of federal election law, it may change the outcome of a very important Senate race.”
Labeled "U.S. Senate Voter Guide: Taxes and Spending," one of the mailers cited in his complaints says O'Dea "supported Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill," while Hanks opposed it.
Another flyer, festooned with photos taken at a firing range, details a contribution O'Dea made to then-Gov. John Hickenlooper's 2014 reelection campaign — after the Democrat "signed laws restricting gun rights." Hanks, the flyer says, sponsored legislation to allow Coloradans to carry concealed firearms without a permit and repeal a state ban on large-capacity magazines.
“The Democrats are falsely attacking me and supporting Ron Hanks, and we’re going to fight back," O'Dea said in a release.
Calling the mailers "egregious and reprehensible violations," O'Dea campaign counsel Brent Owen said in a statement: "The secret actors behind this misconduct believe the rules don’t apply to them, and we’re going to hold them accountable."
O'Dea alleges the lack of the standard disclaimer identifying who paid for the mailers violates a federal requirement that electioneering communications disclose their funding sources.
“This mystery group is trying to steal the nomination for Ron Hanks," O'Dea campaign spokesman Zack Roday told Colorado Politics in a text message. "The facts are on our side and voters deserve transparency. We will be pushing aggressively for a discovery process to drag the funders of this fraud into the light of day.”
Election law attorneys, however, told Colorado Politics that the material probably falls outside that requirement, since the flyers are styled as voter guides and don't expressly advocate a vote for or against either candidate.
The lawsuit and FEC complaint also name Christian Edwards Print + Graphics, a printing company in Des Moines, Iowa. The company was identified by the O'Dea campaign by looking up the bulk mailing permit that appears on the mailers.
Steve Jones, a partner at the printing company, declined to disclose any information about the company's clients in a brief interview with Colorado Politics but insisted that the mailers met all requirements.
"My client has assured me that everything they're doing is 100% legal," he said.
A spokeswoman for Democratic Colorado, the recently formed federal committee blanketing the airwaves with ads calling Hanks "too conservative for Colorado" and highlighting O'Dea's history of making campaign donations to Democratic politicians — including one to Bennet a dozen years ago — said the group is only paying for TV and digital advertising and has nothing to do with the mailers.
In the lawsuit, O'Dea asks the federal court for an injunction prohibiting entities responsible for the mailers from "distributing false or misleading mailers" about O'Dea or his campaign.
He also argues that whoever is behind the mailers intends to "discredit O’Dea, and elevate the profile of Rep. Ron Hanks, who is largely believed to be a less serious threat to the Democratic nominee, Sen. Michael Bennet, in the Colorado General Election."
Hanks disputes that characterization.
The mailers also declare that Hanks has been "Endorsed by the Colorado Republican Party," in one case referencing Hanks' top-line designation by delegates to the Republican state assembly in April, when he was the only U.S. Senate candidate to win a spot in the primary.
Noting that the state GOP doesn't endorse candidates in contested primaries, O'Dea, who petitioned onto the ballot, is asking Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and district attorneys in Denver, Jefferson, Arapahoe and Mesa counties to pursue criminal charges against whoever produced the mailers under a state law that makes it a misdemeanor to communicate false information to voters.
"The actors coordinating this illegal scheme are willfully violating the law on the eve of a primary for cynical political ends," Owen, O'Dea's attorney, said in the letter to prosecutors.
A spokesman for Weiser said on Thursday that the office hadn't received O'Dea's letter so couldn't comment.
In his lawsuit, O'Dea argues that the endorsement message amounts to defamation.
"The obvious implication of this statement is that O’Dea was not endorsed by the Colorado Republican Party," his lawsuit says. "This is false. In fact, the Republican Party did not endorse any candidates for U.S. Senate in the Colorado Primary Elections."
O'Dea's lawsuit maintains that misleading voters into thinking Hanks has been endorsed by the state party has the effect of "lowering O'Dea's reputation amongst voters in the Primary Elections, and causing harm to O'Dea."
The Colorado Republican Party said earlier this week that it plans to pursue legal remedies against the organization responsible for the mailers, calling the claim that the GOP has endorsed Hanks "criminal, false and malicious."
A spokesman for the state GOP told Colorado Politics on Thursday that the party is working on its legal response.
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