Spreading Wealth Around, Part IV

Real estate developer Joel Farkas and his company, Gateway America Properties is in focus in today’s snapshot of big contributors to the Trailhead Group LLC, the Senate Majority Fund, and the Colorado Leadership Fund, the three 527s that Colorado Confidential is investigating.Farkas has given $150,000 to the 527s, $100,000 of that amount to Trailhead, and $50,000 to the Senate Majority Fund.

Farkas was in the news this week for buying out his partner’s interest in the privately held company and renaming it as JF Cos. The company owns about 12,000 acres in Colorado and Arizona, according to the Rocky Mountain News. The company’s biggest venture in Colorado is some 5,600 acres in Weld County, which it plans to sell to home builders. Weld County has recently led the nation in the rate of home foreclosures.

Farkas and his wife Carol show up frequently in newspaper society pages for the charitable contributions; the two are also generous in their donations to Republican politicians, contributing nearly $260,000 to Republican candidates since 2000, including $12,000 for Bob Beauprez’s campaigns for Congress, according to a search of Federal Elections Commission (FEC) records through the Center for Responsive Politics.

In 2005, Gov. Bill Owens appointed Farkas to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. Farkas also happened to give $5,000 in 2001 to Owens’ campaign for governor.

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