CoCo Rail District Accused Of Using Taxpayer Dollars To Influence Tax Vote

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado

STERLING – An eastern Colorado resident who was courted by the Front Range Passenger Rail District (FRPR) to be one of its “CoCo Conductors,” has filed a campaign finance complaint with the secretary of state’s office, saying that FRPR’s contention that millions of dollars in paid advertising supporting the newly formed Colorado Connector (CoCo) passenger rail line was not advocacy is simply not true.

At issue, according to Cory Gaines–who brought the complaint–is $500,000 of taxpayer money spent on three mailers targeting just 246,000 households, a small fraction of the taxing area that CoCo rail line would cover, $192,000 spend on Google and You Tube ads, and hundreds of thousands more for Meta and TikTok ads.

In fact, Gains points to a Denverite article that found FRPR spent nearly $2 million total in “positive advertising” to targeted groups to support the taxpayer funded passenger rail that would serve 12 communities across Northern Colorado.

“FRPR violated campaign finance law by violating parts of the Colorado Fair Campaign Practices Act, using taxpayer money for advocacy,” the complaint says in part, “as well as by not including proper disclosures on electioneering materials this close to an election.”

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