Colorado Corporate Contributions Amendment, Amendment 65 (2012)

Amendment 65
Quick stats
Type:	initiated constitutional amendment
Constitution:	Colorado Constitution
Referred by:	The Cannabis Therapy Institute
Topic:	Elections and campaigns
Status:	a

A Colorado Corporate Contributions Amendment was on the November 6, 2012 ballot in Colorado as an advisory question, where it was approved. The measure, proposed by the group Colorado Fair Share, urged the state to support tweaks in state policy on limiting corporate contributions and expenditures in state and national elections. The measure sought to charge state lawmakers with furthering the state's policy on the matter and ask congressional delegates to support efforts to overrule the Citizens United decision by amending the U.S. Constitution.

Election results

See also: 2012 ballot measure election results

The following are official election results:

Colorado Amendment 65
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		1,762,515	74.1%
No		619,073	25.99%

Results via Colorado Secretary of State.

Text of the measure

Ballot language

The ballot language of the measure read as follows:

“

Shall there be amendments to the Colorado constitution and the Colorado revised statutes concerning support by Colorado’s legislative representatives for a federal constitutional amendment to limit campaign contributions and spending, and, in connection therewith, instructing Colorado’s congressional delegation to propose and support, and the members of Colorado’s state legislature to ratify, an amendment to the United States constitution that allows congress and the states to limit campaign contributions and spending?

”

Support

The following were supporters of the measure, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's website:

• Vote Yes on 65 was the main campaign in favor of the measure.
• Coloradans For Equal Opportunity
• Coloradans Get Big Money Out of Politics
• Fair Share Committee to Get Big Money Out of Politics

Arguments

According to the Vote Yes on 65 campaign's website:

• "Because of the 2010 US Supreme Court decision Citizens United vs. FEC, and several other decisions, local, state and federal officials no longer have the authority to decide how much money can go into our elections. Our elected representatives, the Supreme Court told us, are no longer allowed to make decisions on behalf of American citizens on how much Super PACs, 527s, corporations, unions and wealthy individuals can spend to elect or defeat candidates or ballot measures."

Opposition

• No formal opposition was formed against the measure, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's website.
• Blogger Ari Armstrong wrote an article published in the Denver Post that stated, "Oddly, while Amendment 65 asks Congress to impose censorship, it is totally silent as to how, or even whether, Congress must stop with censorship. Voting for Amendment 65 is like handing a random politician your credit card, sending him on a shopping spree, and asking him to buy whatever he thinks you need.
• According to a column by Mike Rosen, radio host in the state, "The so-called instructions of Amendment 65 couldn't even dictate the behavior of our two U.S. senators, elected statewide. They have minds of their own. As Edmund Burke, a member of the English Parliament, explained to his constituents in Bristol, 'I am your representative, not your delegate.' If you don't like how a legislator votes, vote for someone else next time. In the meantime, he's not a puppet on a string. Amendment 65 won't change anything if it passes, although it would reveal that Coloradans who vote for it don't know much about civics."

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Colorado

In order to qualify the initiative for the 2012 ballot in the state, supporters had to gather 85,853 valid signatures by the August 6, 2012 petition drive deadline.

According to reports, amendment supporters delivered 176,000 signatures to the Secretary of State on the deadline. It was subsequently approved for the ballot.

See also

• 2012 ballot measures
• Colorado 2012 ballot measures