NEWS Monday, March 02, 2026
What we found in Colorado candidates’ quarterly campaign finance reports
Plus: Cities suing over land use aren’t building as many homes. K-12 funding ballot measure. A Colorado campaign fundraiser in … Paris.
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Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez appears at a labor rally May 13 in Denver. She’s not raising much money for her campaign to be Colorado’s next secretary of state. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)
The quarterly campaign finance reporting deadline for state and federal candidates was Wednesday.
We have been poring through the fundraising and spending reports in search of interesting threads. Here’s what we’ve found:
- Democrat TrishaCalvarese is again paying herself a salary as she campaigns for a second time in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. Calvarese paid herself more than $10,600 last quarter. Calvarese lost to Boebert by nearly 12 percentage points in 2024.
- Speaking of the 4th District, Democrat Eileen Laubacher, the retired Navy rear admiral running to unseat Boebert, raised nearly $2.5 million during the quarter, starting October with about $2 million in campaign cash. That means she has burned through more than half of the $4.4 million she has raised since she launched her campaign in May, much of it spent on fundraising expenses. Calvarese raised $500,000 during the quarter and had $350,000 at the end of September. Democrat John Padora, another 4th District Democratic candidate, raised $23,000 during the quarter and spent $25,000, ending with $13,764 on hand and $16,000 in debt.
- Boebert’s fundraising continues to lag. She raised $110,000 during the quarter, spent $100,000 and started October with about $185,000 in the bank. The low numbers could be a reflection of how safe she is in the ruby-red 4th District, or of how Republican donors feel about her.
- Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez ’s fundraising numbers were so low last quarter that it’s hard to imagine she has the resources to continue running a statewide campaign. She raised just $14,000 during the quarter for her campaign to be secretary of state, spent $16,000 and ended September with about $32,000 in the bank. Her only Democratic primary opponent, state Sen. Jessie Danielson, raised $95,000 during the quarter, spent $43,000 and had $52,000 in the bank to start October. There are no established Republican candidates in the race.
- In the Democratic primary for attorney general, it’s no surprise that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, given her name ID, was the fundraising leader last quarter, at $392,000 raised and $173,000 spent, leaving her with $907,000 in the bank. Consumer rights attorney David Seligman, after coming out of the gate strong, had the lowest quarterly haul of the four Democratic candidates, at $140,000. He spent $146,000 and ended the quarter with $320,000 in the bank.
- The Colorado First Fund, a state-level super PAC supporting Griswold’s candidacy, raised $223,000 during the quarter. We haven’t seen any super PACs formed to support any of her primary opponents.
- In terms of money, it’s now a two-way race in the Democratic primary in the 8th Congressional District. State Rep. Manny Rutinel raised about $490,000 during the quarter, spent about $290,000 and ended September with $1 million in cash on hand. State Rep. Shannon Bird raised $385,000, spent about $200,000 and ended the quarter with $560,000 in cash on hand. (Bird entered the race months after Rutinel.) Evan Munsing, a Marine veteran, ended September with $175,000 in cash on hand, while Colorado Treasurer Dave Young had $61,000 and Amie Baca-Oehlert, the former head of the state’s largest teachers union, had about $50,000.
- As Democrats duke it out in the 8th District, Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans keeps increasing his financial war chest. It was at nearly $2 million to start this month.
- Former U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat unseated by Evans in 2024, dropped her bid to reclaim her seat in September. But not before paying herself a salary of more than $16,000 during the quarter, including an installment paid about a week after she dropped out of the race.
DON’T COUNT CD5 OUT
We’ve told you previously that the 5th Congressional District is a race to watch next year, and the quarterly campaign finance numbers from the district reflect as much.
Democrat Jessica Killin, who is running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, raised more than $1 million during the quarter, starting October with nearly $800,000 in cash on hand.
Killin, an Army veteran and the former chief of staff to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, is running a longshot bid to unseat Crank in a district that has never elected a Democrat. But her strong fundraising numbers, fueled by a national network of donors, are raising eyebrows in Colorado and beyond.
Crank, meanwhile, is raising and spending money like he’s facing a real threat next year — not like someone seeking reelection in a district that has never elected a Democrat.
The congressman raised about $400,000 last quarter and spent about $150,000, ending September with nearly $800,000 in the bank.
One spending line item from Crank that caught our eye: $37,000 to Public Opinion Strategies for polling on Sept. 19.
A SUPER PAC SUPPORTING A REPUBLICAN FOR GOVERNOR?
A new state-level super PAC formed Tuesday that appears to be geared toward raising money for a Republican candidate for governor.
Victory for Colorado is registered to both a UPS Store in Centennial and a post office box in Virginia that has been used as the address for a long list of Republican groups.
Staci Goede, the group’s registered agent, has been tied to a number of GOP spending committees across the country.
Victory for Colorado’s stated purpose is "to make independent expenditure towards the 2026 gubernatorial election."
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WHAT TO WATCH IN THE WEEK AHEAD
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- The Legislative Audit Committee meets at 9 a.m. Monday at the Capitol. Find its agenda here.
- The Transportation Legislation Review Committee meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Capitol. Find its agenda here.
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CHART OF THE WEEK
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The cities suing the state over land use built fewer homes than others
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Over the past 14 years, Aurora added the most housing units of any Denver suburb.
Many of the cities fighting the hardest against the state’s new land use laws are also doing less to address the state’s housing shortage than their peers.
An Unaffiliated analysis of State Demography Office data found that from 2010 to 2023, five of the six cities suing the state over its land use rules added housing at a slower rate than their surrounding neighbors.
Among them, the fewest new units were built in Greenwood Village — about 31 a year, or 435 total. That represents a 7% increase in the wealthy suburb’s housing stock.
Glendale added 457 (a 17% increase), while Westminster added 6,310 (14%) and Arvada 7,789 (18%).
In raw totals, Aurora stood out from the others, adding 23,455 units. But the 18% growth in the city’s housing stock still lagged that of Denver, which grew by 29%, or 84,311 units.
The sixth city to sue the state, Lafayette, saw its housing stock grow by 30%.
Excluding unincorporated areas, the 10-county metro area added about 231,000 homes during the period, or a 21% increase. That left the metro area with a shortage of about 52,000 homes in 2023, according to the Denver Regional Council of Governments, with 458,000 more needed between now and 2050.
Still, the places that are openly resisting the state’s housing policies aren’t the only ones that aren’t building enough housing to prevent a shortfall.
Among cities with at least 30,000 people, four of them added fewer than 150 units a year — Englewood, Littleton, Wheat Ridge and Northglenn.
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Want to reach Colorado political influencers and support quality local journalism? The Sun can help get your message attention through a sponsorship of The Unaffiliated, the must-read politics and policy newsletter in Colorado. Contact Sylvia Harmon at underwriting@coloradosun.com for more information.
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
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CAMPAIGN FINANCE
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper’s campaign was set to host a fundraiser Thursday in Paris. As in Paris, France.
Tickets for the cocktails and dinner gathering started at $2,500, according to a flier for the event obtained by The Unaffiliated.
A spokesperson for Hickenlooper’s 2026 reelection campaign said the senator wouldn’t be attending the event as he is in Washington, D.C., to take votes around the ongoing federal government shutdown.
ENDORSEMENTS
It was a week of endorsements in the 8th Congressional District.
- VoteVets PAC announced it is backing Democrat Evan Munsing, a Marine veteran running for elected office for the first time. He works in private equity now.
- Democrat Martin O'Malley, the nation’s former Social Security Administration commissioner and a former governor of Maryland, endorsed Democratic state Rep. Manny Rutinel in the primary.
- State Rep. Shannon Bird was endorsed by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001, which represents over 2,500 transit workers.
READ MORE
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POLLING
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Surveys test voter opinions on proposed 2026 school funding measure, Denver bond package
A new poll circulating in Colorado is testing voter opinions of a proposed 2026 ballot measure that would let the state keep a certain amount of money each year when the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights cap on government growth and spending is exceeded and use the funds to increase K-12 education spending.
Here is the text of the proposed initiative: "Shall general fund investment in K-12 public education increase 2% each year for the next 10 years, with investments used to increase teacher pay, improve teacher retention, lower class sizes and increase access to vocational and technical courses, funded without raising taxes but instead by authorizing the state to keep and spend surplus revenue in excess of the annual cap on fiscal year spending but limited to the amount needed for state K-12 public education spending, and requiring an annual publicly released, independent audit to show how the new investments are spent?"
There’s no such measure before the state’s Title Board as of yet.
It’s unclear who is behind the poll, but they appear to be supporters of the initiative. The survey also tested voter responses to messaging for and against the proposed measure.
Separately, another poll being circulated in Denver is testing voter opinions of Mayor Mike Johnston’s so-called vibrant Denver package of bond questions on the November ballot.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
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🔑 = source has article meter or paywall
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