Candidate's cat is campaign manager

Wow!:

Rob Smoke wasn't the only Boulder City Council candidate to use campaign funds to buy food for his volunteers, but he was the only one to do his shopping at Only Natural Pet Store on 28th Street.

Campaign finance reports filed Tuesday show Smoke spent $14.37 of the $236 he's raised on "dinner for campaign staff" from the pet store.

Reached by phone, Smoke confirmed the purchase was cat food for Sita, his campaign manager.

"It's just a general protest against the way expenditures are handled," he said of his billing his campaign for a household expense. "You have people dumping road signs all over the right-of-way, forcing the city to spend money to clean it up, all by candidates who give lip service to caring about the environment."

He said his few donations came from personal friends, and he's not going to hear from real estate developers about how he's spent their money.

"My taking care of my cat is above what some of the people have done," he said, referring to candidates donating money to each other to get more matching funds from the city, and candidates accepting money from developers with business in front of the city. "I think there are a lot of abuses, and I don't partake of any of them."

Boulder campaign finance administrator Dianne Marshall said the city code doesn't say which campaign expenses are legitimate, only that expenses have to be disclosed.

"It's not unusual that he would buy food for campaign helpers," she said.