PRESS RELEASE

City Councilor runs with 72% funding from outside Lakewood

Newspapers won't print campaign backers in Lakewood mayoral race

OCT 26 LAKEWOOD-The first of the Lakewood candidate campaign finance reports were submitted to the City Clerk's office Tuesday, October 16. Two more reports will be required for the 2007 election and made available for public record at the end of November and beginning of December.

Lakewood City Councilor Bob Murphy submitted a 63-page report revealing that roughly 72% of his campaign financing, or about $33,000, is derived from outside of the City he has represented for the past 8 years. Most of the substantial contributions came from developers, holding companies, and realty brokers, many of which have interests in Lakewood and for which the elected officials most likely will be voting on their projects in the coming years.

"This is a blatant conflict of interest," said Rita Bertolli, a strong candidate running against Murphy for Lakewood's mayoral seat. "What's worse, when this information was released to our free press, our newspapers chose not to report the very clear difference between my opponent and myself."

Bertolli's report in contrast shows roughly 91% of all contributions coming from Lakewood citizens, with only 9 donors out of 96 from outside the City. "My relatives, friends, and colleagues gave nominal contributions to show that they believe in me, but my agenda has, and will always be to represent the people of Lakewood, not the special interests of profiting corporations."

Other Lakewood citizens and Bertolli supporters have voiced their concern over the lack of reporting on the financing. "This information would probably change someone's vote if they knew," said former City Councilor Dorothy Wisecarver, "Why did our newspapers not provide it?"

Bertolli says she's not worried about the censorship. "It's unfortunate that our newspaper media chooses not to provide essential, black and white information to voters and go out on a limb to endorse candidates they can't even explain. But we will get the information out there to the people. I don't believe the informed voter will continue to elect representatives that don't listen to them, don't care about them, and aren't even running their own campaigns. With this election, we are going to set a precedent to change that."

Ballots are due back to Jefferson County for the Lakewood election by November 6.

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Release Contact: Serry Winkler, Rita Vs. Goliath Campaign Manager

Phone: 303-863-8836

Email: info@lakewoodmayor.com