Political postcards under scrutiny

Thomas files complaint

BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Douglas County Commissioner Lora omas led a complaint with the Colorado Secretary of State’s O ce over political mailers attacking her on a number of topics and promoting a replacement.

In December and January, an unknown number of Douglas County residents received postcards that accused omas of wasting taxpayers’ time and money, as well as supporting Democrats.

One postcard reads “You’re being scrooged by Lora om- as” and asks voters to support state Sen. Kevin Van Winkle to replace omas. omas is term-limited and can’t run for her commissioner seat in 2023. Another postcard claims omas is working with Democrat state Rep. Bob Marshall to expand the Board of County Commissioners from three people to ve people. omas led a complaint on Jan. 9 because the postcard does not include a paid-for-by disclaimer and doesn’t indicate who sent the mailers outside of the postage license naming Vistaprint, a Nevada printing company. omas told Colorado Community Media that she didn’t want to comment on her com- plaint while it’s under investigation. omas’ complaint says that she doesn’t believe Sen. Van Winkle is involved despite the postcard touting his name. e Colorado Secretary of State’s O ce has yet to rule on whether the postcards violate campaign nance laws.

One of the mailers also calls out the roughly $22,000 the county has spent to investigate allegations that omas inappropriately released a private anonymous letter sent to the commissioners. Two investigations, which were done at the direction of commissioners Abe Laydon and George Teal, concluded omas’ actions weren’t illegal.