State Senator Ray Scott of Mesa County caught double-dipping

A Daily Sentinel article from May 24 details how Republican State Senator Ray Scott double-billed his legislative expense account and his campaign account for over $1,000 in Uber rides, and didn’t correct it until the Sentinel exposed it and questioned him about it. The Sentinel obtained information on Scott’s expenditures through a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request to the state.

The Sentinel found that even though Scott keeps his personal vehicle — a white Dodge Ram truck — parked at the Capitol with District 7 senate license plates on it, he took 47 Uber rides during the legislative session at a cost of $1,801 and billed his campaign for them. Scott also listed 17 of the rides in his state travel expense report. He claimed all the rides were for campaign purposes even though none of them were in his District, which is Mesa County, District 7.

The state reimbursed Scott for the Uber rides on top of $11,811 worth of airplane travel to and from Grand Junction, over $2,200 for mileage, and nearly $15,000 in travel costs, and all this was on top of the $25,200 Scott gets in per diem pay for the 120-day session in the legislature.

Scott’s Republican challenger for the Senate District 7 seat, House Representative Dan Thurlow, didn’t list any travel or food expenses in any of his campaign filings with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. Thurlow says he doesn’t use campaign funds for anything he’d have to be doing anyway, like eating, driving or taking Uber rides. Thurlow said he only uses campaign funds for things directly related to his campaign, like yard signs, brochures and advertising.

The Sentinel also found a large portion of Scott’s campaign contributions are coming from groups that are funded by large corporations based outside of Mesa County, while “nearly all of Thurlow’s money has come from individuals who live inside Senate District 7, which comprises all of Grand Junction and Mesa County.”

Read the entire Daily Sentinel article about Scott’s expense reports here.

 

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