Lawsuit accuses two Colorado state lawmakers of trying to evade open records laws regarding swanky mountain retreat

A progressive activist has filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court against two Democratic state lawmakers who attended an expensive retreat with lobbyists.

Derrick Blanton says that, in October 2025, more than a dozen Democratic state lawmakers belonging to the "Colorado Opportunity Caucus" gathered at a luxury hotel in Vail. There, Blanton says, corporate lobbyists paid between $25,000 and $100,000 for lawmakers' attention, and a pro-business group called One Main Street paid $25,000 for their hotel rooms.

In response to an ethics complaint, Caucus Co-Chairs, state Sen. Lindsey Daugherty, who serves Colorado's 19th District, and state Rep. Sean Camacho, who represents Colorado's 6th District, claimed the retreat was exempt from the state gift ban because the caucus is a government body and they were at the retreat as government officials to learn about policy.

Attorney Scott Moss, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Blanton, says Daughterty and Camacho told his client the exact opposite when he filed an open records request for information about the retreat, including who attended, what the agenda included and how it was funded.

Moss says Daugherty and Camacho initially said they didn't have any records related to the retreat. He says they later claimed the records weren't subject to open records because the caucus is a private body, and they attended the retreat as private citizens.

"These aren't the Lex Luthors of political corruption when they're arguing, as an ethics defense, that this was legit government activity, and we have wonderful bank records to document it all. But their defense to transparency violations is, 'No, it wasn't government activity, and we have no records whatsoever," said Moss.

The Opportunity Caucus issued a statement calling the lawsuit "baseless," saying, "Working with the non-partisan attorneys at the Office of Legislative Legal Services, members of the Opportunity Caucus produced all documents deemed responsive to multiple CORA requests."

Moss says the only documents produced were screenshots of lawmakers' names.

The lawsuit comes amid growing tension at the state Capitol between the Opportunity Caucus, made up of centrist Democrats, and the Progressive Caucus.  It also comes just months before the midterm election, which includes open seats for all four executive offices in the state.