Fact Checking Kevin Biehl

I recently received a flyer on my doorstep from Kevin Biehl and noticed information that I knew was inaccurate. I decided to take a further look - and I'd like to share what I've found so far.

Kevin is running as a write-in candidate for Colorado HD37 and his platform seems to be "attack incumbent Chad Clifford" and not much else. The best that I got from conversations with him was "I'm just really disappointed that we're not represented," but his stated reasons for feeling that way are... wrong.

Since this began with the flyer, I think that's a good place to start.

"Keep Lobbyist and PACS out of Local Lawmaking"

This statement is similar to saying "Keep water out of making coffee" or "Keep Money Out of Banks". I would expect any candidate to understand the core basics of the job for which they're applying.

Lobbyists and Political Action Committees are an integral part of State Government - these designations are how we keep track of who does what and how we make the rules for campaign spending and how organizations engage in policy.

First, lets explain what these things are:

Every organization that you care about has a lobbyist. Arapahoe County pays a lobbyist to represent them in the Capitol, so does Centennial and Greenwood Village, so does your Civic Organizations, unions, industry representatives, firefighters, plumbers, police, experts on health and policy, etc. We can't "keep them out", they are literally who we send from organizations to engage the General Assembly.

If you represent a group or organization that wants to impact policy, you must register as a lobbyist. You can volunteer as a lobbyist or be paid, but once you take on any issue beyond you, as a citizen, then we call you a lobbyist. (And yes, you literally work in the lobby of the Capitol- hence the term.)

Lobbyists (in Colorado at least) have to follow very strict rules like "they can't buy a legislator a cup of coffee or spend one single dime" on (or to) a Legislator or their staff. And, they (just like any other citizen) can support candidates that they like with campaign donations - with the exact same maximum contribution limits as any other citizen. These donations aren't different than any other person donating money. Lobbyists cannot donate more than $450 to a General Assembly candidate during any 2-year campaign cycle.

POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES (PACs) are organizations that donate money to campaigns. If any organization wishes to make a political donation, they must register a Political Action Committee. Corporations and businesses may not donate directly to a campaign. So, again - every organization that you care about that engages in political spending either registers as a PAC or donates to a PAC that has the ability to make donations. From Arc to Dumb Friends League to Google. It is not the existence of PACs that is problematic, it is which. Almost all elected officials register PACs to support other candidates. PACs also have maximum limits (just like regular citizens) when donating to campaigns.

These rules for Lobbyist and PACS is how we keep track of campaign spending and the integrity of the spending in our political system to prevent undue financial influence.

Now let's look at the Candidate Statements and Take them apart:

While these statements don't say much - they are all 100% true.

You can find all Kevin's Contributions and Expenditures here.

What the author doesn't say:

Almost all of the people who have donated to Kevin (73%) are from out of state and only 4 people (3 households) in HD37 are represented as his donors. (as of 10/18/24)

I also appreciated that Kevin was designated in Blue and Chad in Red (Chad is the democrat candidate).

These Statements are 66% true.

You can find all Chad's Contributions and Expenditures here.

Funded by Lobbying Firms and Political Action Committees - True

Refused to accept voluntary spending limits - True

Party Insider elected by only 19 people in Vacancy Election - FALSE

Party insider elected by only 19 people in a vacancy election. FALSE

The intent to deceive the discerning public was what fascinated and left me with so many questions:

The 3rd statement is technically false, lets address that one first.

Chad Clifford won the vacancy election with 22 votes, not 19.

The flyer also conveniently fails to mention that Kevin Biehl was also a democrat candidate in that election and only earned 2 votes total, eliminating him as a candidate in the first round against Dr. Ashish Vaidya (a PHD Political Scientist), and Chad Clifford. At the time, Kevin also recognized himself as a "party insider" and spoke candidly about this in the Vacancy Election. It was apparent by the name dropping by Kevin during the Vacancy that he was "known" by the Democrats. (See Video Below)

The Vacancy Election process is how we replace candidates who resign or are removed from office. It's not new, and none of the candidates in that election chose the process.

This Video is the HD37 Vacancy Election from January 3, 2024 in which both Kevin Biehl and Chad Clifford faced each other as candidates for the first time.

Watching the video of HD37's Vacancy Election gives insight to both of these candidates political motivations.

Watch for yourself - if you don't have 2+ hours to kill, it's still fun to bounce around and just listen to the candidates speak and see if you agree with the results of the election.

Refused to Accept Voluntary Campaign Spending Limits. TRUE

When I researched Colorado's Voluntary Campaign Spending Limits, accepting this spending limit would cap campaign spending by a candidate for the Colorado House of Representatives is $102,500. It's true that Chad Clifford did not elect "voluntary" spending limits, which is common practice for all modern and viable campaigns. Legitimate candidates for this office could not expect to run a viable campaign with this cap if they had to face a major party candidate. For instance, the cost to mail every voter in the district a single mail piece would cost approximately $80,000 with printing and mailing costs. Campaigns require staff and coordination that isn't cheap.

I can't really determine why the author of the document thinks this is a worthy differentiator of candidates. He had the privilege to cap his spending limits because, candidly, his race will never be able to garner that amount of support.

Funded by 5+ Lobbying Firms and 10+ Political Action Committees. TRUE

This statement is true. I just went to Chad Clifford's website and stopped counting at 100 donations from organizations, their lobbyist, and their Political Action Committees. He doesn't seem to hide this (and why would he?), they are all listed on his website.

Chad also is the registered agent for "Creating Leaders PAC" click here

I could certainly find many other candidates in the state that have raised more money in this election cycle, but I could not find another candidate that seemed to be endorsed by more people and organizations than Chad Clifford (perhaps Rep Eliza Hamrick, but it's close). I also noted that only 2 (out of hundreds) of individual donors are from out of state, and almost all of the individual donors live inside the boundaries of HD37.

Again, I'm left questioning Kevin Biehl's motives... does he think that a less supported Representative would be better or more effective for HD37?

So - I thought, maybe Chad is just a "party insider," so I called a couple of Republicans who serve on City Councils - and both of them described a good working relationship with Chad as the Representative. One even went as far to say "Chad has been more engaged with us than any other state public official... we like working with him".

Don't take my writing / words for this - if you have friends on the City Council of Centennial or Greenwood Village, or a County Commissioner - I encourage you to call or email these people yourself to see if you get the same answer.