By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. Especially from your own party if you’re a republican in Colorado.
Yesterday, March 27, the Rocky Mountain Voice team received a tip that there were over $100,000 in campaign finance violations in two committees run by Darcy Schoening, a candidate for Chair of the GOP, and that another news organization was about to break the story.
With the lack of balance in our Colorado media, we were concerned this would be a one sided “hit piece” so we decided to write our own piece to approach it in a fair way.
I had endorsed my friend Brita Horn for GOP Chair early in the race (personally, not as the President of RMV) before Darcy had jumped in as a candidate.
With this in mind, I removed myself from any involvement in researching and writing the story to preserve RMV’s stance of impartiality concerning the GOP Chair race.
On that note, RMV has personally reached out to all GOP Chair candidates, inviting them to share answers to our questions about their candidacy – and their vision for leading the party. We continue to update our original article spotlighting GOP Chair candidates as they submit responses.
However, I chose to personally reach out to Darcy about the campaign finance violation situation directly, hoping to alleviate any concerns about RMV’s intent about reporting. Her response was disappointing.
Here’s my original text:
Hi Darcy – it’s Heidi. My RMV team was given a heads up on a story that is coming out on you in another publication.
I wanted to give you a chance to tell your side of the story in Rocky Mountain Voice if you wanted to.
It appears two different political organizations you run have significant delinquencies and have racked up some pretty hefty fines. It looks like the PAC is up to $72,650 and the IEC is at roughly $27,900. That is over 100K in outstanding.
Let me know what you think.
Darcy responded:
Hey, yeah not an interesting story. The SOS hasn’t been able to get me into my account. So we have had to call every few months and have the fines removed. They’re aware. They’re actually easy to work with.
As any reputable news organization does, I had the RMV team do their research, and they did indeed find two committees that together had amassed current fines in excess of $100,000. Our team spoke to the Secretary of State’s office live and confirmed the facts presented to us.
In June of 2024 waivers were requested for several past due reports, and fines were reduced but not eliminated for the Smart Choice Colorado PAC. No waiver requests had been completed since June.
Apparently, our contact with Ms. Schoening prompted her to figure out how to get into her account. As of this morning, waivers have now been requested for all 9 of the past due reports for Smart Choice Colorado and Smart Choice CO. Prior waiver requests have resulted in reduced – but not eliminated fines.
As someone who cares deeply about the conservative movement in our great state, and works diligently to build it, I’m glad that a person vying for the leadership of the Colorado Republican Party has found the time to take care of her legally required compliance reporting. And we hope the fines she is left with aren’t too steep.
While there is evidence of an earnest attempt to address this campaign finance violation, a concern remains. We hope this behavior does not reflect poorly on the Colorado GOP and discourage donors.
Who wants to donate money that ends up paying fines for negligent bookkeeping?
Even more concerning though was that prior to any story being written, and within a short time of me reaching out in good faith to her, Darcy chose to send out a text message from her campaign to the entire State GOP Central Committee attacking me and the Rocky Mountain Voice.
Her response is filled with inaccuracies. Her claims about the fines are not accurate according to the Colorado Secretary of State as of our conversation with them yesterday.
Additionally, Darcy’s claim that RMV reformatted her Q and A is untrue.
Her claim about RMV “not having any intention to write a story” is ridiculous. The reason we reached out to her was stated explicitly from the beginning and as a courtesy: to get her side of the story.
If Darcy Schoening wants to lead this party, perhaps she should start with not leading others astray.
RMV was created to tell the TRUTH about what’s happening in Colorado, and within our own party. We’ll stay the course, regardless of the results in tomorrow’s election.
This statement from Darcy Schoening was copied and pasted verbatim:
Statement Regarding Recent Allegations
As we approach an important decision this weekend, it’s disappointing to see more wild claims and misleading attacks surface. I want to address some recent claims regarding political committees I established to support conservative candidates.
There have been allegations presented to my campaign that claim I owe fines to the Colorado Secretary of State involving two political committees I am a registered agent for. These committees were previously established to support conservative candidates running primarily in local elections.
The Facts
For several months, I have been consistently engaging with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office regarding ongoing technical issues with the TRACER platform and accessing these accounts. Working specifically with the COSOS’s Campaign Finance Office, they have routinely informed me that no fines have been levied against both committees operations or finances while these issues are being sorted out.
These committees, which have been focused on assisting with campaigns to advocate and push for conservative candidates at local levels, have been successful in raising more than $100,000. However, issues have arisen on several occasions with properly updating the reporting for these committees due to accessibility issues with the state’s TRACER system. These delays generally result in fines applied to organizations; however, any and all fines for these entities have been waived based on ongoing communication and good faith efforts to properly document the committee’s activities.
The result: Each of these organizations have no fines against them or debts incurred to the Secretary of State’s office.
Throughout 2024, political media organizations in Colorado have reached out similarly on this issue. However, each time when details of the matter are explained, each has consistently signaled there was no story to be reported on. Many of these media entities consistently work within the TRACER system, and are well aware of its shortcomings.
With the inquiry from Rocky Mountain Voice coming to my campaign on March 27, just hours before we cast our vote for the next Chair of the Colorado GOP, my campaign found the timing of this particular inquiry to be of interest. My campaign has already had challenges with RMV staff over the last two weeks, namely, with misrepresentation and reformatting of my responses to their Q-and-A questionnaire that was submitted in an effort to allow others to gain a better understanding of my positions and policies.
Update – 10 pm, March 27, 2025
Since an informational text of this situation was provided to SCC members, I have received feedback from RMV that indicates despite their detailed inquiry to me earlier, on the heels of the Colorado GOP chair race, they had no true intention of doing a story at all.
But what’s important to me is transparency.
Since other media organizations have professionally engaged me in the past on this topic, and subsequently passed on a news story tied to it, the administrative oversight of these groups has not risen to the level of discussion required as available here now. However, I wanted the public to have greater insight into this topic because the truth and the facts matter.
It’s unfortunate there are those in our Republican communities that continue to attempt to smear me and distort the facts. This has been an ongoing theme with the radical Left, and it’s shameful the extent others will adopt their tactics.
While we may face criticism along the way, I and my campaign remain focused on bringing Republicans together by building a stronger party and securing victories across our state. I am proud of my record, the work these committees did last election cycle to get conservatives elected, and I look forward to serving with integrity and determination.
Thank you for your continued support.
~ Darcy
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.