Following a misleading May 9 KMGH 7News “investigation” by reporter Tony Kovaleski that featured Independence Institute president Jon Caldara as a source, Kovaleski appeared on Caldara's Newsradio 850 KOA show to promote the report. Neither Kovaleski nor Caldara told listeners that Caldara was featured prominently in Kovaleski's report, and they repeated its dubious suggestion that the Regional Transportation District (RTD) was involved in a “pay to play” scheme regarding contracts on the FasTracks rapid transit program.

As Colorado Media Matters noted, Kovaleski's 7News report misleadingly presented “an interesting connection between companies donating” to the FasTracks Yes! campaign and “the paydays that have followed.” During the report, Kovaleski, Caldara, and Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman insinuated that RTD had unethically awarded contracts to 28 companies that had contributed to FasTracks Yes!, which supported the 2004 public transportation referendum. Caldara -- whom Kovaleski identified only as a “former RTD board chairman” -- stated during the report, “There is nothing illegal about what they've [RTD] done. But there sure is something they should be ashamed of.”

On Caldara's May 9 broadcast, Kovaleski repeated many of the dubious allegations made in his 7News report. After Caldara asked, "[W]hat led you to take a look at what is an obvious 'pay to play' maneuver on RTD's behalf?" Kovaleski replied, “It's about accountability for tax dollars; voters approved this, 58 percent of them said this is what the Denver area wanted, and voters are now paying for it every day they go and, and make a purchase. So in, in our continuing series of government accountability, we wanted to see not only who paid to provide this three-point-six million dollars for the campaign but also who got money after taxpayers started coming up with the cash to, to fund this project.” Neither Kovaleski nor Caldara mentioned that Caldara was featured as a source during the report.

Furthermore, after noting that “we're not trying to say that RTD has done anything illegal” and that “the Supreme Court, as you know, has said companies have the right to vote with their checkbook,” Kovaleski added: “What we showed voters -- what we showed taxpayers -- is that they did it with large amounts of money and there's a parallel in that after the election they've also cashed large amounts of contract money.”

However, as the Rocky Mountain News reported on May 7, of the 94 firms contracted to work on FasTracks, the majority (59) did not contribute to the FasTracks Yes! campaign. Moreover, according to the News, "[O]ne of the highest profile contracts so far, the construction management deal on the West Corridor, went to an experienced transit-building partnership of Herzog Contracting of St. Joseph, Mo., and Stacy & Witbeck of Alameda, Calif. Neither firm gave a dime to the campaign and beat out other bidders with both experience building other rail for RTD and a record of campaign donations."

During the interview, Caldara and Kovaleski also failed to mention the Independence Institute's leadership in an unsuccessful campaign opposing FasTracks.

From the May 9 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Jon Caldara Show:

CALDARA: All right, moving from the state, I want to take you back in history -- oh, what was it -- 2004. I got a whole list of -- of, of, tax increases that I've fought over the years, some successfully, some unsuccessfully. Back in -- I'll, I'll take you back all the way to 1997. 1997 I ran a tax campaign against the Regional Transportation District. They wanted to raise taxes 67 percent. I raised, oh, I don't know, like about 40 thousand dollars -- little old ladies giving me 20 at a time. The proponents -- people that make all the money off of it -- raised 600 thousand dollars. That's a lot of coin. We beat them. We beat them about 58 percent to 42. With that little money. We were outspent 15 to 1. Fast forward seven years to 2004. RTD, the transit authority out here in Colorado, did the same thing. They raised taxes, tried to raise taxes 67 percent. Thanks to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, they had to ask us first. When they did, we put together a campaign. Again we raised about 40 thousand dollars. They raised nearly four million dollars. Four million dollars. In local politics in a citywide election like that, four million dollars wins. Period. You can't beat it. So I'm wondering, who put in that four million dollars? If you made the mistake of watching Channel 7 news instead of listening to my program in the last 15 minutes, Tony Kovaleski on Channel 7 news gave you an idea on that. Tony, thank you for joining us here on 850 KOA.

KOVALESKI: Hey Jon, I'm hoping a lot of people made that mistake and are now tuning back to talk to me.

CALDARA: Exactly. Hey, I -- I got to tell you, I watched, watched it through the glories of TiVo while we were in a, in a break and watched your investigative series. Tell me first of all, what led you to take a look at what is an obvious “pay to play” maneuver on RTD's behalf? And you did -- you did a great job with this story. I'm hoping it's going to be on the website so people can watch it at TheDenverChannel dot com.

KOVALESKI: It will, Jon. You -- you'll be able to see it tomorrow morning on TheDenverChannel dot com, but, you know, we, we've done these stories in the past. It's about accountability for tax dollars; voters approved this, 58 percent of them said this is what the Denver area wanted, and voters are now paying for it every day they go and, and make a purchase. So in, in our continuing series of government accountability, we wanted to see not only who paid to provide this three-point-six million dollars for the campaign but also who got money after taxpayers started coming up with the cash to, to fund this project.

CALDARA: I think it, it's worth, before we explain this -- and for those who didn't see your investigative report, they need to know that what you're about to describe is completely legal. There is nothing -- there's nothing against the law with what's happened here, and there's nothing against the law for all these big corporate contributors getting their kickbacks now.

KOVALESKI: It, it -- that's a critical point. And you saw in our, our report at 10:15 tonight, Jon, that we really stressed that. Because we're not trying to say that RTD has done anything illegal, or any of these companies -- any of these companies have done anything illegal. As a matter of fact the Supreme Court, as you know, has said companies have the right to vote with their checkbook. Or support these bond issues because they think it's the right thing to do. What we showed voters -- what we showed taxpayers -- is that they did it with large amounts of money and there's a parallel in that after the election they've also cashed large amounts of contract money.

CALDARA: Yeah, the point -- the point I need to make really clear here is, we, we talked about the ability for citizens to, to say no to tax increases. However, when large corporations, and even small corporations, start pulling in all the money knowing they are going to make tons of money back, huge multipliers of that, they have an incentive to give a lot of coin to these campaigns. RTD's campaign raised nearly four million dollars, and nothing beats that for a, for a citywide election like this. Let -- let's talk about some of the specifics. So a lot of these companies -- the, the, the three-point-six million dollars didn't come in 10s and 20s and even 50s from little old ladies who wanted trolley cars in Colorado. Where -- where did this money come from?

KOVALESKI: Well Jon, RTD will tell you that most of the money came from companies that did not receive contracts or large amounts of dollars, like we pointed out tonight. And that is factually true. But it is also factually true that it's intriguing to look at some of these dollars. Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade donated 92 thousand dollars --

CALDARA: This is an engineering company, a big engineering company.

KOVALESKI: They've cashed one-point-two million dollars in the first 24 months after voters said “yes.”

CALDARA: All right, let me -- let me see if I got this. They, they put in 92 grand; they got one-point-two million back.

KOVALESKI: Yes.

CALDARA: Nice return.

KOVALESKI: URS gave 30 thousand dollars; they've cashed one-point-one million dollars.

CALDARA: So, 30 grand, they get one-point-one million back. Nice.

KOVALESKI: Carter Burgess donated 50 thousand dollars; they've cashed nearly eight million dollars.

CALDARA: They put in 50 grand -- this is another engineering firm -- they put in 50 grand, and they've got how much back?

KOVALESKI: Nearly 8 million.

CALDARA: Eight million dollars back.

KOVALESKI: They are the big winner to date --

CALDARA: Whoo!

KOVALESKI: -- if you look at it in the terms of -- of winners and losers. And then -- then there's Siemens Transportation; it's the company that builds the light-rail trolley. This is probably the most intriguing point that we brought out in our investigation tonight. Here's a company that had a contract with RTD to provide 34 light-rail vehicles for T-REX, OK? RTD took a option to purchase another 34 vehicles within a certain amount of time frame -- OK, certain amount of time. And RTD will tell you that this was a move that saved them a lot of money, because the going rate for one of those trolley cars now in Canada is apparently three-point-three million and because of this agreement RTD paid only two-point-six. But let's not get fooled by the numbers here. The key point, Jon, is that Siemens Transportation, which donated a hundred and one thousand dollars to the FasTracks Yes! campaign, did it knowing there was already a contract, they would not have to go to bid for 34 additional vehicles that totaled, to date, 50 million dollars.

CALDARA: So in other words -- 50 million. So in other words, Siemens corporation -- this is a large, multinational corporation. This is a big, big company. They're the ones who make the trolley cars for RTD. In fact, RTD has only purchased Siemens trolley cars --

[...]

KOVALESKI: RTD says not pay for play because it's all competitively bid and these companies --

CALDARA: How can -- how can they say this with a straight face? They're only going to buy their trolley cars from one manufacturer. They already have a contract with them to buy more of these cars. The company gives a hundred grand towards the campaign, what risk do they have? The only risk they have is if, if the tax increase doesn't go forward, maybe they won't sell the cars, but knowing that if this tax increase passes, they're in like flint.

KOVALESKI: It certainly is logical, and again, completely legal. But it -- it's something that we put out of there tonight, Jon, so that voters understand that when these nice campaigns come forward and say, “This is good for you,” you need to realize, you know, where's the money coming from and who's saying, “Is this good for you?” We're, we're not debating whether FasTracks was a good proposition or a bad proposition, all we're doing is informing voters that where much of the money, or a good chunk of the money, came from here was from companies that stood to gain a lot when voters said “yes.”