The Griswold Senate Exploratory Committee updated its statement of organization after the candidate won her primary for attorney general, keeping the door open, experts say, for a federal campaign in the future.
Jena Griswold may have said no to a Senate bid in 2019, but the exploratory committee she created still lives and has been quietly running behind the scenes.
Two days after winning the Democratic nomination for Colorado attorney general, Griswold updated paperwork for her Senate Exploratory Committee with the Federal Election Commission. Last week, her Senate Exploratory Committee amended its statement of organization to change its bank name and remove its registered agent.
While it is not currently raising funds, the Jena Griswold Senate Exploratory committee has remained active since she decided not to pursue a 2020 Senate bid. It has been spending money on compliance consulting (filling out the required forms) and spending money on “database services.” As of April 1, it has just over $87,000 cash on hand.
A Griswold spokesman said it’s not “atypical” to keep committees open.
“Jena is committed to serving the whole term if elected as Attorney General,” said spokesperson Zach Stout. “The exploratory committee was kept open in case Jena decided to run for federal office. We are considering options like shutting it down or converting it to a PAC.”
“Typically, if you create an exploratory committee to look at running in a specific race and then decide not to run, you terminate the committee,” said Brett Kappel, a campaign finance expert with the Washington, D.C., based law firm Harmon Curran.
“However, you might want to keep it open but dormant if you were contemplating the possibility of running in a different federal race at a later date,” he said.
The big question swirling around Colorado politics is whether Sen. Michael Bennet will seek reelection in 2028 after his failed gubernatorial bid last month. A number of Democrats are said to be eyeing the seat, although Griswold’s name has not come up as one of them.
Other candidates and former elected officials have chosen to keep their campaign committees active even after dropping out of a race. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston still has his principal campaign committee active and has used the funds remaining in it to contribute money to the Colorado Democratic Party and to the Denver Foundation. He’s also used the money to pay for compliance paperwork.
Meanwhile, former Rep. Doug Lamborn of the 5th Congressional District has switched his campaign committee to a political action committee.
Campaign finance expert Robert Kelner agrees it’s a bit unusual to keep an exploratory committee active, especially if the committee does not have debt. But he pointed out candidates are not required to open an exploratory committee, let alone close one.
“It’s a little bit of an odd thing because she didn’t really need to register it in the first place if it was truly an exploratory committee,” Kelner said. He heads the election and political law group at Covington & Burling LLP in New York CIty. He pointed out many candidates take that step for political and publicity reasons, not because it’s actually required.
“One reason you would close it is to signal that you’re no longer considering a candidacy. So, by keeping it open, it sort of sends a message that you’re continuing to explore a federal candidacy,” he said.
He added that keeping an exploratory committee open when you’re running for state office, as is the case with Griswold,could also muddy a candidate’s message.
“Voters might say, ‘Well, are you going to be focused on being a state official if in the meantime you’re getting ready to campaign for a federal office?’ But that’s a political calculation,” he said. “Legally, she can keep the committee open as long as she files her reports and discloses its expenditures,” he said, and makes sure she doesn’t run afoul of any restriction.
For example, candidates can’t use the funds for personal use. Candidates also cannot move federal campaign funds to state campaign committees.
In 2019, the committee raised just over $200,000 and refunded $45,400 to donors leaving it with just over $103,000 cash on hand. Since then, the committee has slowly chipped away at that total by spending money on database services and compliance consulting.
In December 2019, the Federal Election Committee wrote to the Jena Griswold Senate Exploratory Committee to point out Griswold had not filed a statement of candidacy and she had 35 days to “disavow the activities” of the committee.
The Jena Griswold Senate Exploratory Committee wrote back, and said “she [Griswold] decided not to run for federal office at this time and did not announce her candidacy.”
It did not, however, fully disavow the committee. And, it’s still been making expenditures on Griswold’s behalf.
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