Using artificial intelligence as analytical tool, a resident of Longmont has filed complaints against two prominent Colorado Democrats, alleging multiple campaign finance violations.

The complaints are among a growing number of campaign finance allegations against individuals running for some of Colorado’s top jobs.

What’s unique with the complaints is the use of AI as a data or analytical tool.

On Nov. 20, Jeffrey Ethan Au Green of Longmont filed a complaint against Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor against U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who is running to succeed Weiser, was the subject of a Nov. 2 complaint, also filed by Au Green. Four Democrats are running in next year’s election to take over from Weiser, who is term-limited. They include Griswold, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, nonprofit director and workers rights advocate David Seligman and former federal prosecutor Hetal Doshi. Republican Connor Pennington, a first-time candidate, has also filed to run for the office.

The Griswold complaint was transferred to the Colorado Department of Law – which Weiser leads – for handling, since campaign finance complaints are reviewed by the Colorado Secretary of State’s elections division.

That complaint deals with campaign finance reports between April 1 and Sept. 30, in which the Griswold campaign allegedly failed to disclose the donors, their occupations or employers for 492 contributions totaling $61,371. 

The Weiser complaint claims there were 1,988 disclosure violations during the same period, and his campaign similarly failed to disclose funders, occupations or employers. Au Green told Colorado Politics the contributions total more than $200,000.

Much of what is alleged in both the Weiser and Griswold complaints deals with aggregated contributions. In the Weiser complaint, Au Green said he used data analysis to locate rows where aggregate contributions of $20 and $100 are missing names, addresses or employer or occupation information.

How he determined who made those contributions is unknown.

The state campaign finance manual says that “itemized contributions must include the name and address of the contributor for all contributions of $20 or more (either one-time contributions or contributions greater than $20 in aggregate during a reporting period), and the contributor’s employer and occupation for all contributions of $100 or more if the contributor is a natural person.”

The manual doesn’t address aggregation of donations without names of contributors, nor does state law require a campaign to identify funders who contributed less than $20 at a time or require employer or occupation information for an aggregated contribution of $100 or more.

Neither complaint identified contributors whom Au Green alleged made aggregated donations of $20 or more. Those contributions were just listed as “monetary (non-itemized).”

For the Weiser campaign, there were more than 1,800 donations of less than $20 with no name attached. For Griswold, the figure was more than 2,100 contributions of less than $20 with no name identified, according to the complaint.

Au Green, in the complaint against Griswold, said he conducted AI data analysis to identify categories of potential campaign finance rules violations. He then manually looked at reports and found violations for failing to disclose funders who contributed $20 or more. He also found other violations that didn’t list occupations and employers for those who contributed $100 or more.

Au Green said this was the first time he’s ever looked at campaign finance violations.

“I was just bored one evening and started looking at Jena Griswold’s donations,” he told Colorado Politics.

In a Nov. 18 response on the Griswold complaint, the law department said it determined the complaint was timely filed, identified potential violations of campaign finance law, and “alleges sufficient facts to support a legal and factual basis regarding one or more of the alleged violations.”

The department gave the Griswold campaign 10 days to “cure” the violations. Should those reports be properly amended to address the violations, the complaint would be dismissed.

The response from the elections division on the Weiser complaint is due on Dec. 8.

Au Green, also known as Ethan Augreen, filed to run for House District 12 as a Democrat in 2020. In 2024, he ran as a Libertarian for the Colorado Senate in District 17. He also ran for the state Board of Education. He failed to make it to the ballot in any of those races. 

He has his own history with campaign finance issues; he has twice been fined for failing to timely file those reports. In 2020, the fine was waived. In the 2024 Senate race, he paid $50 of a $100 fine, with the remainder waived. He told the elections division he was “too busy” to file the report due to a family visit and that a $100 fine would wipe out his campaign account, one in which he was the only contributor.

In 2023, he ran for Longmont City Council and mayor in 2023. He finished third in the mayoral contest.