According to the online records at the secretary of state's office, Jared Polis gave two $1,000 checks to Cary Kennedy's successful campaign for state treasurer last year.

If true, that means that Polis - financier of Amendment 41 and thus the scourge of all Capitol lobbyists - violated Colorado's campaign finance laws.

Under 2002's Amendment 27, an individual cannot give more than $1,000 to a candidate for statewide office during an election cycle.

But the report says that Polis gave $1,000 to the campaign March 27, and another $1,000 on June 15. Different addresses in Boulder were used - one a street number, one a post office box - but "entrepreneur" was listed as the occupation for both.

And entrepreneur he is, having turned himself into a multimillionaire by selling his parents' greeting-card business to an Internet company during the tech boom of the late 1990s, and starting numerous other companies since. On the side he served six years on the state board of education.

He's not naive. Is he careless? And what about Kennedy's campaign? Surely a treasurer candidate's treasurer would be very careful not to take too much money from any one source.

Asked about the contributions, Kennedy aide Eric Rothaus did some research.

And it turns out that Kennedy filed her campaign reports manually last year, not electronically like most candidates. And on the original sheets the June 15 contribution was said to come from June Polis, not Jared.

Apparently the mistake was made at the secretary of state's office, where they have to transfer the manual filings into the main computer database.

June turns out to be Jared's grandmother. She had been sales manager at Blue Mountain Arts, the company started by Polis' parents, and now lives part of the year in San Diego. And thus her contribution to Kennedy's campaign is every bit as legitimate as the matching contributions often given to candidates by the spouses of business tycoons who've already maxed out.

The lesson for candidates is that if you can file electronically, you'd better do so. Otherwise, like Kennedy, you run the same risk as reporters in the pre-computer days. You typed your copy and, after editors worked it over, it was sent to the back shop where typesetters turned it into hot lead. Wonderful folks all, salt of the Earth, but you could never be sure how your copy would show up in the newspaper, especially after their dinner break.

Still active in politics: Bob Beauprez is back with another issue of A Line of Sight, his on- line political newsletter. But it doesn't mean he's running for the Senate or Congress next year, he says, or any other office.

"I never say no to anything, but I'm sure not saying yes either," he replied when asked about plans.

Beauprez, who lost to Gov. Bill Ritter last fall, has moved back to his old home in the 2nd Congressional District and says he's concentrating on the four P's - Politics, Policy, Personal Time and Philanthropy.

He said he was offered various business opportunities after the election, "but none of them tripped my trigger." A millionaire several times over after selling his bank, he's apparently working on a charitable project he's not yet ready to reveal.

He's not sure whether former Rep. Bob Schaffer is ready to join Scott McInnis in the race for the Republican Senate nomination, but did observe how well-received Schaffer was at the state GOP central committee meeting in Castle Rock earlier this month.

Schaffer lost the Senate primary to Pete Coors in 2004, but has surprisingly rebounded within his party, noted Beauprez.

But will Schaffer try again in 2008? "The environment out there is maybe not as inviting as some conservatives would like it to be," Beauprez said delicately.

blakep@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5119.