A Colorado state ballot effort to require companies and individuals to divest from Iran following a White House nuclear deal is raising major stakes.
Proponents – including former Colorado House Republican Leader Mark Waller of Colorado Springs – submitted ballot language on Wednesday. If that language is approved by the state, then proponents can begin collecting the 98,492 valid signatures needed to place the issue before voters in 2016.
The Defund Iran Colorado effort is part of a national movement. Colorado is one of five states – including Arizona, Florida, Missouri and Ohio – with proponents working on divestiture language. Defund Iran will launch efforts in at least 15 states by the end of September and will work to place the issue before voters in as many as 25 states next year, according to a news release announcing the initiative.
Funding for the initiative remains a bit unclear. Registered as a 501(c)4, Defund Iran, Inc. does not have to disclose its donors. Proponents say money will come from a “grass-roots” coalition of both national and state interests. The group had not established an issue committee in Colorado as of Friday, noting that the ballot language is still not finalized.
The state’s pension system – Public Employees’ Retirement Association, or PERA – already divests from nations with ties to terrorism.
Under the Defund Iran proposal, companies benefiting from oil-related activities in Iran, or assisting with Iran’s ability to develop petroleum resources, would be included in the public investment ban.
Waller said the effort is far from unprecedented, pointing out that Democrats in 2007 pushed a measure that was signed by Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, requiring the state to divest public pension funds from companies with ties to Sudan. Genocide in the Darfur region at the time sparked the conversation.
“Nobody accused (Democrats) of playing political games when they were trying to divest from investments in the Sudan,” Waller said. “This is a very similar initiative. In fact, the only difference is I don’t think the Sudanese government was out calling ‘death to America’ the way the Iranian government is.”
One of the first co-sponsors of the 2007 Sudan legislation was Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, who served as a member of the Colorado House at the time.