Democrats Top Republicans In Fundraising As Election Day Nears In Colorado

By Sara Wilson, Colorado Newsline

November 3, 2022

Election Day is a little under one week away, but one thing is clear now: Democratic incumbents for statewide offices won the fundraising game by a long shot.

They’ve pumped those dollars into slick television advertisements, pricey consulting and lots of internal research in the hopes of winning reelection and maintaining a Democrat in the offices of governor, secretary of state, attorney general and treasurer.

No candidate comes within striking distance of incumbent Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ total haul of $12.7 million this election cycle, over $12.6 million of which the wealthy tech entrepreneur contributed himself. Polis also restricted his donations to $100 per individual.

Polis spent about $12.1 million in his campaign up to Oct. 26, about half what he spent to defeat Republican Walker Stapleton in 2018.

He made another $1 million contribution to his campaign coffers in October and spent another $2.8 million for television advertisements as voters received, filled out and sent in their ballots, according to campaign finance records that cover Sept. 29 through Oct. 26.

His Republican opponent, University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl, is far behind Polis when it comes to campaign fundraising. Over the course of the election cycle, she raised a bit over $2.3 million and spent about $3.1 million. Ganahl took out about $1.3 million in loans for her campaign, $46,000 of which is repaid.

In October, Ganahl spent about $1.3 million on her campaign, including $706,000 in media buys.

There is also considerable outside spending on electioneering communication in the race for governor. The Colorado Democratic Party has spent nearly $400,000 on behalf of Polis and there have been modest expenditures from Everytown for Gun Safety and the Centennial State Prosperity Action Network.

Ganahl is getting a boost, most notably, from the anti-Polis committee Deep Colorado Wells, which has spent close to $3.3 million in opposition to Polis and support for Ganahl.

There is also a lot of money spent in opposition to Ganahl — over $500,000 from Everytown for Gun Safety, and about $5.6 million from the Democratic-backed Strong Colorado for All, which gets a lot of money from the Democratic Governors’ Association and received a $2 million contribution from Michael Bloomberg in October.

Democracy functions only when people have access to reliable information about government and society. Colorado Newsline’s mission is to be a trusted source of such information. Newsline is nonprofit, nonpartisan and independent, and it provides fair and accurate reporting on politics, policy and other stories of interest to Colorado readers