High-profile Denver lawyer David Lane said today that the contempt-of-court citation brought against Douglas Bruce by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office is “political.”

“The Attorney General’s Office has no love for Douglas Bruce,” he said in a telephone interview. ”I’m always suspicious of them going after somebody like this.”

But it’s important to remember what the case is really about. It began with a  campaign finance complaint filed months ago by Denver lawyer Mark Grueskin against the backers of Amendment 60, Amendment 61 and Proposition 101.

In that complaint, Grueskin alleged the backers should have formed issue committees and disclosed the financial sponsors behind the massive signature-gathering effort that led to their placement on the ballot.

Bruce was subpoenaed to be deposed in connection with the case. Despite efforts to distance himself from those measures, Secretary of State’s Office records show eight professional petition circulators responsible for gathering thousands of signatures lived for a while in a house he owns in central Colorado Springs.

Bruce tried to get the subpoena quashed. Although the administrative judge refused, Bruce still didn’t show up for the deposition.

The administrative law judge didn’t have the authority to hold Bruce in contempt and referred the matter back to the Secretary of State’s Office. That office, in turn, enlisted the aid of the Attorney General’s Office.

Thus, the AG’s Office was acting as the legal representative of the Secretary of State’s Office and didn’t have any stake  in the game other than to make sure one of the basic tools of the judicial system — a subpoena — was honored.

The AG’s Office got a court order from District Judge Brian Whitney compelling Bruce to comply with the subpoena. Process servers subsequently attempted to serve him with the judicial order 30 times.

But Bruce — never one to shun the limelight — was suddenly nowhere to be found.

Fed up with the cat-and-mouse game, the AG asked the judge to find that Bruce had been dutifully served and to issue a contempt-of-court citation.

The judge agreed. And that’s basically where things stood until Aug. 3 when David Lane waded into the fray.

The case was set for a hearing Aug. 18, but Lane asked for a week’s delay because he has some business in Gitmo.

The AG’s Office said it was willing to give Lane an extra week, but nothing more, saying “undue delay” will prejudice the state.

“One possible outcome of the contempt hearing is that the Court will impose remedial sanctions requiring Mr. Bruce to sit for a deposition and to produce documents  in the underlying administrative case,” the AG stated. “Such sanctions will be completely meaningless if they occur too close to (or after) the Nov. 2, 2010 election.”

 ”By all appearances, Mr. Bruce has made every effort to avoid providing the subpoenaed information, and retaining counsel now, over five months after he was first subpoenaed and over three months after the commencement of those proceedings, only further contributes to the delay in resolving this matter.”

To summarize, Bruce is fighting hard to avoid giving this deposition. And the question is, why?

Members of a wealthy Pueblo family have given $10,000  of the roughly $12,000 in campaign contributions received by  CO Tax Reforms, a political-issue committee that is supporting three ballot issues that would reduce taxes and limit government borrowing.

Ali Hasan, a fiscal conservative who  lost a bid this spring to become the Republican nominee for state treasurer, contributed $5,000. His mother, Seeme Hasan, also contributed  $5,000, according to interviews and campaign finance records.

Born in Pueblo in 1980 on the Fourth of July, Hasan is the son of Dr. Malik Hasan, a Pakistan-born neurologist who moved to Pueblo, Colorado, in the early 1970s with $32 in his pocket and subsequently built one of the largest health maintenance organizations in the country.

The Hasans are large contributors to Republican candidates and causes. In 2008, Seeme Hasan was appointed to the finance committee of the McCain-Palin campaign and raised $1 million, according to the Muslims for America website.

The Hasan Family Foundation, according to a Denver Post story, gave Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis $300,000 several years ago to write articles on water and do speaking engagements.

Some of his writings were found to be nearly identical to material written by Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory J. Hobbs, the Post revealed.

“I’m very shocked and upset over the entire matter,” said Ali Hasan. “Most of the foundation members were also upset. But we’re happy that he (McInnis) is going to pay the money back. The foundation took the water study very seriously. It was a missed opportunity.”

Hasan, a filmmaker and screenpay writer who lives in Beaver Creek, said in an interview this week he strongly supports Amendment 60, Amendment 61, and Proposition 101.

The three ballot issues would put an end to fees that Hasan alleges are essentially taxes, force local and state governments to live within their means, and greatly strengthen the 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, he said.

Hasan is not only a fervent supporter of TABOR, but also considers its author — Colorado Springs resident Douglas Bruce –  one of his mentors and political heroes.

 “He’s one of the finest conservatives since Ronald Reagan,” he said. “I love him like a family member and he loves me very much.”

Asked about the $4.1 million raised by opponents of Amendment 60, Amendment 61, and Proposition 101, Hasan said they are going to need the money to defeat the initiatives.

He said he was confident that three measures would be approved by voters. “These are incredibly popular issues,” he said.

The El Paso County Board of County Commissioners are on record as being opposed to three ballot issues that critics say will deal a death blow to school districts, as well as local and state governments, by rolling back taxes and reining  in debt.

That says a lot because the five El Paso commissioners are among the most  fiscally conservative politicians in the state. In fact, the alleged mastermind behind the measures is one of their former board members: Colorado Springs resident Douglas Bruce.

“They just go too far,” Commissioner Dennis Hisey said of Amendment 60, Amendment 61 and Proposition 101.

Commissioner Sallie Clark said the ballot issues would impact roads, bridges, schools, libraries, water projects, fire districts, and human services. “It undoes what our forefathers envisioned as local government. It takes away our ability to manage within our budget.”

One of the measures, called Proposition 101, would not only reduce the state income tax rate, but would roll back car registration fees to $10. While Clark would like to see a reduction in motor vehicle fees, she says the reduction goes too far.

Testimony and evidence presented during a recent campaign finance hearing in Denver show that Bruce had a big hand in writing the three measures and organizing the massive-signature gathering campaign that qualified them to be put  on the ballot.

Bruce, who has denied involvement in the three measures, was ordered by Denver District Judge Brian Whitney to appear for a deposition in connection with the hearing. After 30 attempts to serve him with the court order, the judge found him in contempt of court.

A hearing on the contempt-of-court citation is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday in Whitney’s courtroom in Denver.

Issue 300, the so-called citizen initiative authored by Colorado Springs resident Douglas Bruce, got on the citywide ballot last November with a lot of help from out-of-state residents, including Michael Rhodes, city clerk’s records show

Although Rhodes was not present during a campaign finance hearing in Denver on May 24-25, spectators and witnesses heard him telling a Denver petition circulaton firm that it had a “cherry opportunity to make a stupid amount of money” by circulating petitions for three statewide measures at a conservative rally.

Rhodes is the head of ProVote America, a petition circulation company based in Los Angeles. He has not responded to emails requesting an interview.

Rhodes was the second-largest collector of signatures for Issue 300, gathering 2,162 signatures, or 14.5 percent, of the valid signatures needed to get on the ballot. Rhodes also gathered thousands of signatures for three statewide measures that will be on the November ballot.

Opponents say the measures, called Amendment 60, Amendment 61 and Proposition 101, would have a devastating impact on the state economy. Amendment 61, for example, would forbid the government from issuing bonds, which would stop big construction projects like the Southern Delivery System.

Issue 300, which ends payments to the city from its revenue-producing entities, will reduce city coffers by $100 million over the next eight years, Vice Mayor Larry Small has said.

Residents of Colorado Springs will be feeling the impact for years to come.

Former reporter Perry Swanson and I went to the City Clerk’s Office a couple of months ago and built a database of the petition circulators on Issue 300. Our research showed that at  least 14 of the 16 top signature gatherers listed below do not live in Colorado Springs. Here’s what we found: