The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office filed a formal complaint Friday against Colorado House Rep. Ron Weinberg for alleged campaign finance violations following an investigation that began when Weinberg’s House colleague Brandi Bradley reported suspected violations to the state in August.
Bradley’s complaint alleges that the District 51 representative spent campaign funds on personal expenses, ranging from haircuts and restaurant bills to donations to an Israeli rugby team, between the years of 2023 and 2025. In November, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office announced that it would investigate Weinberg’s spending, and last week it filed a complaint of its own, which will be heard by a hearing officer by Jan. 20.
The complaint included exhibits of expenses in its report, the earliest being an $84.31 charge at McGraff’s American Grill in Loveland on July 13, 2023, and the most recent being a $96.26 charge at the University Club in Denver on Sept. 18, 2025.
“Although some of these expenditures, in isolation, may be reasonably related to supporting Weinberg’s election, the sheer volume of questionable expenditures is a sharp departure from other candidates and committees,” the Secretary of State’s Office wrote in its complaint Friday.
Expenditures included several payments at Monarch Casino Resort Spa in Blackhawk, which Weinberg said was spent during a stay during a Republican Caucus meeting; a nearly $2,000 donation to the Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club, a donation that Weinberg said was an advertising expenditure that included his campaign logo appearing on the team’s jerseys; and a donation to Mountain View High School in Loveland that the school said it had no record of receiving. Weinberg, in an interview Monday, said that the donation had been for advertising purposes as well as to support a sports team at a local high school, and that he suspected the school’s administrators were mistaken.
He also reported over 100 bar and restaurant bills since 2023, enough that they were included in an exhibit separate from the rest of the expenditures in the complaint.
The thousands of dollars in bar and restaurant expenses, including $3,566.19 at McGraff’s American Grill in Loveland, were likely not all campaign related, the complaint said.
“On information and belief, not all of those expenditures were made for campaign purposes,” it read.
Weinberg said that he hosts many campaign events at McGraff’s, a local establishment near his home in Loveland.
“It’s not personal,” he said. “If it were personal it would be a $25 charge.”
The smallest expense at McGraff’s was $25.56, and most of his expenses at the restaurant ranged between $60 and $100.
Weinberg said that he was confused by the complaint, saying that all expenditures were made through a registered agent, Marge Klein, adding that it was suspicious that the expenditures, which had been publicly available for years prior to Bradley’s complaint, had come so soon after Weinberg made a play for a leadership position in the Colorado House earlier this year.
“It’s odd that I run for Republican leadership, and all this stuff that’s been out for years suddenly surfaces,” he said. “It seems suspicious. It’s not a coincidence. These charges that they’re talking about have been in the public eye for three years. It’s not like they found a hidden box of receipts under my bed.”
Candidates for public office file periodic campaign finance reports detailing incoming and outgoing funds, and the expenditures mentioned in the complaint have been publicly available on the Secretary of State’s website since shortly after they were made.
Weinberg said he was looking forward to a hearing where he could defend the expenditures.
The Secretary of State’s Office contracts with an outside attorney for such hearings, and that hearing will be scheduled by Jan. 20. After the hearing officer renders a decision, either party can appeal, at which point the Colorado Attorney General’s Office would represent the Secretary of State.
The complaint did not specify a penalty if Weinberg is found to have violated campaign finance laws but did reference a Colorado State statute that included potential fines, return of the misspent funds, and certain clarifications from the candidate.
