Shady 501(c)4 spends big bucks to recall Democratic senator, won't disclose donors. [View all]

[Robb]

In a petition-gathering effort paid for by the National Rifle Association and already caught lying to voters, a term-limited Democratic State Senator is under fire for, well, being a Democrat and supporting Colorado's overwhelmingly popular new gun laws.

But who are these "grassroots" folks who want to recall Sen. John Morse?

DENVER — Rob Harris, the Everyman from Colorado Springs who delivered three boxes of petition signatures to the Secretary of State’s office Monday, insists he’s the driving force behind the effort to recall Senate President John Morse for his role in passing gun control legislation earlier this year.

But Harris is getting an awful lot of help — more than $55,000 over two months from a 501(c)4 group that doesn’t disclose its donors.

That money, disclosed in financial reports filed at the end of May, helps explain how Harris was able to turn in more than 16,000 signed petitions on Monday, more than twice the number he needs to force a recall election in El Paso County later this year.

The group, I Am Created Equal, spent about $42,500 last month with the El Paso Freedom Defense Committee, all of which went to Kennedy Enterprises, which paid people to collect signatures.

Read More: http://kdvr.com/2013/06/04/group-has-spent-56k-on-signatures-to-recall-morse/

According to the filings, Mark Hillman, Bob Beauprez and Shari Williams are the group's "advisory board." You may not be familiar enough with Colorado politics to know the names, but let's face it; it's a who's who of Colorado's nutty right:

From left, that's former Republican National Committee member Mark Hillman, longtime GOP campaign operative Shari Williams, and failed 2006 gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez. We'll give them credit for including at least one woman among the three members of this "women's group's" advisory board, but there's nothing "grassroots" about Shari Williams.

And folks, to suggest Mark Hillman, or especially "Both Ways" Bob Beauprez are "grassroots" figures is a joke. Beauprez's connection to this recall effort could be a particularly interesting side-story to this recall if he, as has been widely speculated, makes a run for the U.S. Senate next year against Mark Udall.​

However it plays out, make no mistake–far from a "grassroots" movement, the same GOP usual suspects we've been writing about in this space for years have purchased this recall election against John Morse.