What Amendment 82 Does
REPORTED. Amendment 82 adds two sentences to the Colorado Constitution: consumers have "a right to purchase natural gas for cooking or heating in their homes and businesses throughout the state," and utilities have a right to sell it. The state's nonpartisan voter guide says it "may limit the ability for state or local governments to enforce existing or future regulations related to natural gas." As a constitutional change it needs 55 percent. Its sponsor is Advance Colorado, a conservative nonprofit founded in 2020 by former Republican Gov. Bill Owens (Post Independent), led by president Michael Fields and executive vice president Kristi Burton Brown. Advance Colorado does not disclose its donors, and the Colorado Sun reports it "paid millions of dollars to collect voter signatures" for the measure. Colorado Sun →
INFERENCE. Those signature millions are the money that actually put Amendment 82 on the ballot, and none of it appears in Colorado's campaign-finance filings, because it was spent by a nonprofit that does not have to report it. Everything below is the part that is visible.
The Committee and Its Checks
DOCUMENTED. The committee is Brighter Colorado (Colorado TRACER ID 20265052270), formed in July. Its itemized receipts through its Oct. 19 filing total $3,270,775. The Old Goat pulled every line from the state's bulk data. The large ones:
| Date | Donor (as filed) | Address | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 31 | Advance Colorado | Denver, CO | $20,000 |
| Aug 28 | Common Sense America | 1390 Chain Bridge Rd, McLean, VA | $250,000 |
| Sep 21 | Common Sense America | McLean, VA | $1,000,000 |
| Sep 21 | Common Sense America | McLean, VA | $750,000 |
| Sep 22 | GOPAC Election Fund | 1000 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA | $500,000 |
| Oct 6 | Colorado Dawn | Colorado Springs, CO | $100,000 |
| Oct 14 | GOPAC Election Fund | Arlington, VA | $500,000 |
| Sep–Oct | Donors listing energy employers (Western Midstream, 1876 Resources, Lincoln Energy Partners) and Rado Capital | Colorado | about $110,000 |
DOCUMENTED. Common Sense America and GOPAC Election Fund together gave $3,000,000 of the $3,270,775, or 91.7 percent. The money did not sit. In the week after the Sept. 21–22 deposits, Brighter Colorado paid Victors Canvassing of Colorado Springs $1.95 million and Direct Marketing Solutions of Denver $600,000 (net of refiled entries); the marketing firm has received $807,000 in all, $172,000 of it labeled digital ads.
REPORTED, and this is the limit. Brighter Colorado is not an Amendment 82 committee alone. The Colorado Sun and Colorado Newsline describe it as backing six Advance Colorado measures "including Amendment 82." The Post Independent reports it is registered as opposing Amendment 87, the graduated income tax, and Proposition NN, and that it "shares an agent with Advance Colorado." The Old Goat could not open the committee's own registration page to settle which measures it lists. No dollar on this page can honestly be called Amendment 82 money; it is money for the package Amendment 82 belongs to. Post Independent →
The $2 Million Did Not Come From the PAC
Press coverage has called Common Sense America "a federal hybrid PAC." There is one: Common Sense America Election Fund, FEC committee C00807420, at 1390 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 515, McLean.
DOCUMENTED. That PAC's third-quarter report, filed Oct. 15, shows $100,000 in receipts (all from "Common Sense America Inc," Sept. 23) and $217,680 in spending, mostly to Minnesota Republican committees. It shows no payment to Brighter Colorado. FEC filing →
DOCUMENTED. The other entity in that McLean suite is Common Sense America Inc, IRS employer number 87-4615274, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. Nonprofits of that kind do not have to name their donors. Its president is Steven Crim, a former senior adviser to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (REPORTED). Its IRS filings show revenue of $2.6 million in 2022, $1.3 million in 2023 and $272,333 in 2024. IRS 990s →
INFERENCE. The $2 million came from the nonprofit, not the PAC. A group that took in $272,333 in all of 2024 wrote $2 million in Colorado checks in four weeks of 2026. The money is new, and the law does not require anyone to say whose it is.
One Treasurer
DOCUMENTED, from FEC committee records and IRS filings. Melodie Johnson is:
- treasurer of GOPAC Election Fund (FEC C00559740), the second check;
- treasurer of Common Sense America Election Fund (FEC C00807420);
- secretary and treasurer of Common Sense America Inc, the first check;
- listed as an officer of the GOPAC Education Fund (treasurer in 2023, director in 2024), GOPAC's own 501(c)(4), chaired by David Avella.
Two things are true at once. Professional treasurers serve many committees; Johnson is also listed as treasurer of an unrelated PAC, and a shared treasurer alone does not prove shared money or a plan. A director's seat at GOPAC's nonprofit is a governance role, though, not a bookkeeping contract. INFERENCE: the two checks that make up 92 percent of this committee were written from one circle of officers in Northern Virginia. GOPAC Education Fund 990s →
Following GOPAC's Money Back
DOCUMENTED. GOPAC Election Fund is fed almost entirely by GOPAC Inc, which shares its suite at 1000 Wilson Boulevard. GOPAC Inc gave it at least $16.5 million in the 2025–26 cycle, by the FEC's processed data. GOPAC money reached five Colorado committees this year, $4.92 million in all: Senate Majority Fund ($2.04 million), Brighter Colorado ($1 million), Coloradans for Accountable Government ($980,000), Keep Colorado Affordable ($605,000) and Colorado Strong ($295,000). Donors →
REPORTED. GOPAC Inc is a 527 political organization, which, unlike a nonprofit, must report its donors to the IRS. ProPublica's summary of those reports lists the three largest donors in each period, set here against everything GOPAC Inc took in that period:
| IRS report period | Three largest donors | Period total |
|---|---|---|
| Jan–Jun 2025 | RAI Services Co. $235K · PMI Global Services $225K · Altria Client Services $125K | $3.49M |
| Jul–Dec 2025 | RAI Services Co. $1.58M · Carolina Partnership for Reform $1M · Duke Energy $355K | $6.61M |
| Jan–Mar 2026 | PMI Global Services $175K · Guarantee Trust Life $150K · Altria Client Services $125K | $2.67M |
| Apr–Jun 2026 | RAI Services Co. $685K · PhRMA $575K · Altria Client Services $400K | $3.86M |
RAI Services is part of Reynolds American, the cigarette maker. Altria owns Philip Morris USA; PMI Global Services is part of Philip Morris International. In the latest report the top three gave $1.66 million of $3.86 million. Over GOPAC Inc's whole filing history, its single largest line is "aggregate below threshold" ($10.3 million), the sum of gifts under $200, and its second-largest vendor is a telemarketing firm, Infocision ($11.6 million), so small donors are a large part of its money. ProPublica also warns that GOPAC filed overlapping reports, so some amounts may be counted twice. GOPAC 527 filings →
INFERENCE, with a hard limit. GOPAC's money is pooled. Nothing on this page traces a tobacco, drug-industry or utility dollar to Colorado, and GOPAC Election Fund sent money to dozens of state committees this year. The Old Goat could read only the top three donors per report; the full lists sit behind a site check that blocks automated reading. GOPAC Election Fund's October report, due Oct. 20, should be the first federal filing to show the Sept. 22 Colorado wire. What can be said is this: the largest named donors to the national group that supplied a third of this committee's money include tobacco companies, the drug industry's trade group and an electric utility.
Why It Matters Here
REPORTED. Advance Colorado's ballot list reaches past gas stoves. Colorado Politics reports Brighter Colorado "also supports a slew of proposals from Advance Colorado, which is pushing, among other things, to cap the state's income tax at 4.4%," and opposes Proposition NN. The same money that rides with Amendment 82 rides with the state's tax fights. Colorado Politics →
OPINION. The Old Goat asked who is behind Amendment 82, and the honest answer is that the law lets the people who paid for it stay out of sight. The visible part of the sponsor's operation is a committee that took $3 million from out of state, most of it from a nonprofit that names no donors, and spent most of it within a week. Colorado voters are being asked to amend their constitution on the word of people they are not allowed to see.