EL PASO COUNTY — Ahead of the controversial Karman Line special election in Colorado Springs on Tuesday, new campaign finance reports show large sums of money are still pouring in.
Support for Issue 1–which is a yes vote in approval of annexation, is now far outpacing the opposition for the land deal near Schriever Space Force Base on the southeast edge of the city.
Stand Against Monopolies, the registered committee in support, showed another $350,000 contributed by Norris Ranch Joint Ventures. That brings the total from Norris Ranch to $550,000 since April 14.
Norris Ranch Joint Ventures owns the land for the project and includes investors such as the O’Neil Group, a large local development company.
The bulk of the spending by Stand Against Monopolies this past campaign finance period shows that much of the spending was on printing, postage, and advertising.
On the other side of the issue, the Citizens to Stop Illogical Growth committee, which is in opposition to the annexation, reported about $22,000 in contributions from May 15 to June 8.
Citizens to Stop Illogical Growth initially reported $470,000 for in-kind donations earlier in the year, which were for signature gathering operations. That triggered the special election.
The $470,000 was given by a 501(c)(4) nonprofit called Defend Colorado. The group doesn’t have to disclose its donors, which is often called “dark money.”
News5 previously reached out to Defend Colorado about claims the group is associated with another developer called Norwood, but they did not respond.
Since the first campaign finance report, Citizens to Stop Illogical Growth has reported only about $24,000 in monetary contributions, many of them from small individual donors.
But Defend Colorado did make an additional $20,000 donation in this latest campaign filing period, as shown in last Friday’s campaign finance report.
The opposition committee’s expenditures were mostly on printing, yard signs, and Facebook ads.
About $18,000 was spent on Cole Communications mailers and text messages. The company is owned by Daniel Cole, who also oversaw the signature-gathering process earlier in the year.
Campaign finance data can be viewed through the City of Colorado Springs.
According to voter turnout data from the city, a little over 60,000 ballots had been returned as of Sunday night.
The city said approximately 330,000 ballots were mailed to registered voters in Colorado Springs.
All campaign contributions from either committee, including monetary and in-kind donations, total to $1,051,135 this cycle.
That means $17.46 has been spent for each returned ballot thus far in this special election.
Ballots must be returned by 7 p.m. on election day, Tuesday, June 17.
For more on voter turnout, click here.
Background:
The annexation was approved by the Colorado Springs City Council earlier this year, after the approval, a group of people opposed to the annexation gathered enough signatures through a petition process to send the question to voters.
City Council had two options: reverse its approval or send it to the ballot.
Karman Line is a 1,900-acre proposed development east of Colorado Springs. The land is owned by Norris Ranch Joint Venture LLC, which includes The O’Neil Group.
The development proposes a mix of commercial and residential property including 6,500 homes. The proposal includes multifamily and single-family properties.
This annexation is known as a “flag pole annexation”, it’s where a thin strip of land, in this case, a section of Bradley Road is also annexed into the city to attach the land to existing city limits.
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