Page:Colorado State Constitution (2020).pdf/177

 thereon by the proclamation of the Governor. The Governor's proclamation on Amendment 27 implementing this article was issued on December 20, 2002; however, § 13 of this article provides that the effective date of this article is December 6, 2002. (See L. 2003, p. 3609.)

(2) (a) In 2008, Amendment 54 amended § 13 of this article creating an exception to the effective date stating that the provisions of this article amended or added by Amendment 54 concerning sole source government contracts are effective December 31, 2008; however, the Governor's proclamation date on Amendment 54 was January 8, 2009.

(b) In the case of Dallman v. Ritter, the Denver District Court declared Amendment 54, which amended certain provisions of this article, unconstitutional and issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of Amendment 54 (see Dallman v. Ritter, 225 P.3d 610 (Colo. 2010)). The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the district court's ruling (see Dallman v. Ritter, 225 P.3d 610 (Colo. 2010)).

(3) In the case of In re Interrogatories by Ritter, the Colorado Supreme Court declared §§ 3(4) and 6(2) of this article unconstitutional in light of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310, 130 S. Ct. 876, 175 L. Ed. 2d 753 (2010).

Cross references: For the "Fair Campaign Practices Act", see article 45 of title 1.

Law reviews: For article, "The Colorado Constitution in the New Century", see 78 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1265 (2007).

Section 1.Purposes and findings. The people of the state of Colorado hereby find and declare that large campaign contributions to political candidates create the potential for corruption and the appearance of corruption; that large campaign contributions made to influence election outcomes allow wealthy individuals, corporations, and special interest groups to exercise a disproportionate level of influence over the political process; that the rising costs of campaigning for political office prevent qualified citizens from running for political office; that because of the use of early voting in Colorado timely notice of independent expenditures is essential for informing the electorate; that in recent years the advent of significant spending on electioneering communications, as defined herein, has frustrated the purpose of existing campaign finance requirements; that independent research has demonstrated that the vast majority of televised electioneering communications goes beyond issue discussion to express electoral advocacy; that political contributions from corporate treasuries are not an indication of popular support for the corporation's political ideas and can unfairly influence the outcome of Colorado elections; and that the interests of the public are best served by limiting campaign contributions, establishing campaign spending limits, providing for full and timely disclosure of campaign contributions, independent expenditures, and funding of electioneering communications, and strong enforcement of campaign finance requirements.

Source: Initiated 2002: Entire article added, L. 2003, p. 3597. For the effective date of this article, see the editor's note following the article heading. Initiated 2012: Entire section amended, effective upon proclamation of the Governor, L. 2013, p. 3301, January 1, 2013.

Section 2.Definitions. For the purpose of this article and any statutory provisions pertaining to campaign finance, including provisions pertaining to disclosure: Colorado Revised Statutes 2020