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Candidate Guidelines#

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The Candidate Guidelines are intended to provide candidates for municipal office general information about the basic requirements of running for municipal office at the next regular municipal election in November of odd-numbered years.

Questions regarding the Candidate Guidelines or requirements of running for municipal office should be addressed to the City Clerk's Office at elections@fcgov.com or by calling 970.221.6515.

On September 18, 2023, the City hosted a Candidate Orientation Session to provide basic information about candidacy, elections, and responsibilities of elected officials.

Watch the video of the entire session below, or view the presentation materials here.

The campaign report forms MUST be maintained in Excel format and submitted electronically as Excel files. Opening/using the forms in another software package will significantly change the formatting.

A candidate committee must obtain from each seller a certification of full fair market value for any purchased goods or services, and from the contributor for any goods or services that constitute a contribution or contribution in kind. Any seller or contributor asked to provide a certification of value must provide to the candidate committee a correct and undiscounted statement of value. Certification of value documentation must be retained by the candidate committee and provided to the City Clerk, or other appropriate City official responsible for investigating or reviewing compliance, upon request.

Contributions from Limited Liability Companies (LLC) must be accompanied by the following form completed by the LLC and provided to the Committee. The Committee must retain the form, but it does not need to be filed with the City Clerk.

In September 2018, Council added required statements on certain campaign materials.  These requirements apply to ALL candidates, committees, and independent expenditures.

The following is taken straight from the City Code:

Sec. 7-140. - Responsibility for communications.

(a)  Required Statements.

(1)  Whenever a candidate, candidate committee, issue committee, political committee or registered small-scale issue committee makes an expenditure [emphasis added] for the purpose of financing communications expressly advocating a particular result in an election, or solicits any contribution or contribution in-kind through any broadcasting station, newspaper, magazine, outdoor advertising facility, direct mailing or any other type of general public political advertising, such communication if paid for or authorized by a candidate, candidate committee, issue committee, political committee, registered small-scale issue committee, or any agent for the same, shall clearly state that the communication is paid for by that candidate, candidate committee, issue committee, political committee or registered small-scale issue committee.

(2)  Whenever any person makes an independent expenditure in excess of the reporting threshold in § 7-139 for the purpose of financing communications expressly advocating for a particular result in an election, such communication shall clearly state that the communication is paid for by that person.

(b)  In regard to the different forms of communication set forth in subsection (a) of this Section 7-140, "communication" shall include, but shall not be limited to:

(1)  Websites or social media of a candidate, candidate committee, issue committee, political committee or registered small-scale issue committee available to the general public;

(2)  Websites or social media of a person if and to the extent they are financed by independent expenditures in excess of the reporting threshold in § 7-139 and are available to the general public; and

(3)  Advertisements placed for a fee [emphasis added] on another person's website or social media.

(c)  The statement required by this Section 7-140 must be clear and conspicuous in the communication. The statement required herein shall not apply to communications where including the statement would be impractical, such as:

(1)  Bumper stickers, pins, buttons, pens and similar small items upon which the disclaimer cannot be conveniently printed;

(2)  Skywriting, water towers, wearing apparel, or other means of displaying an advertisement of such a nature that the inclusion of a disclaimer would be impracticable; or

(3)  Checks, receipts, and similar items of minimal value that are used for purely administrative purposes and do not contain a political message.

(d)  Nothing herein shall be deemed to alleviate any person from complying with federal campaign finance law, as applicable.