UPDATE: The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that Doug Bruce may be held in contempt of court for failing to respond to judge's orders.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said his office probably would go to district court to seek a remedy against Douglas Bruce for failing to respond to a judge's order compelling his testimony in a campaign-finance complaint.
"We're going to pursue other available remedies, and I suspect they will take place rather quickly," Suthers said Wednesday.
Suthers declined to speculate on what those remedies might be, but he acknowledged the case involved "contempt issues and things like that."
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Proponents of three anti-tax measures set to appear on the Colorado ballot in November are telling a judge they can't identify the source of the initiatives, but they think that anti-tax crusader Doug Bruce is the shadowy leader of the movement known as "Mr X."
The AP reports:
Five proponents who are accused of failing to report campaign donations said Monday they got the ballot language and instructions from a mysterious "Mr. X," who sent them unsigned e-mails.
One of the proponents, Michelle Northrup, told the judge she believes "Mr. X" is anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce, because she panicked and he called her and told her he was sending further instructions.
Bruce, who has become a pariah in Colorado politics after authoring Colorado's controversial TABOR laws, has been rumored to be the force behind the measures, called Amendment 60, Amendment 61 and Proposition 101 on the November's ballot. The measures would further restrict the sources of revenue for state an local governments in Colorado, and have been widely opposed by Democrats, most Republicans, and business groups.
Bruce has refused to take credit for the initiatives, ignoring questions from reporters and avoiding court dates by hiding from officials trying to serve his subpoena papers.
The trial has been brought on by opponents of the measures, who say that the movement's backers should have registered as an issues committee and disclosed the source of funding for the petition drive, which gathered 140,000 signatures.