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10 17 24 Colorado Politics' Marianne Goodland discusses money spent on campaigns
But there's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. Remember FDIC. What if there was a day when we could come together to give to the causes we're most passionate about? Great news! There is! December 10th is Colorado Gives Day, and it's easily the best day to give. All the causes you care about are in one place, so let's start a wave of generosity across the state. Join us in lifting up our local communities. Live now through December 10th at Colorado GivesDay.org. I don't know if you know this, but when you don't have time to read The Washington Post, you can listen to it. Almost every article has a listening option, and right now you can become a Washington Post subscriber for just 50 cents a week. It's an incredible deal. Stay on top of what's happening by signing up at washingtonpost.com/pod, that's washingtonpost.com/p-o-d. Millions of dollars being spent here in Colorado across a number of state races, much of that money is coming from outside groups that are looking to influence the outcome of certain elections. And from the end of September to October 8th, about three and a half million dollars have been spent on the state's most impactful races. Joining us now on the KOA Common Spirit Health Hotline is Chief Legislative Reporter for Colorado Politics. It's Marianne Goodland. Marianne, thank you so much for your time as always. This is a really great in-depth article that's truly breaking down the dollar amounts that we're seeing for some of these races. And it's talking about the independent expenditure committees. What are they, what can they do and can't do when it comes to candidate contributions that we see? First of all, thank you so much for having me on again. I'd be happy to tell you about it. Often expenditure committees are a sort of a special category of fundraising committees within state and federal law, and they are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money. The big divider between it and candidate campaigns is that they are, by law, not allowed to coordinate with candidates or candidate committees. So, so no conversations about messaging and certainly no contributions going from these IECs as they're known to the candidates, although we did see an example of that during this last reporting period. Marianne, are we seeing more out-of-state money come into Colorado this election cycle than we have in the past, or is this just part of the norm? This is part of the norm, and actually this year it's considerably less than we've seen in a lot of years. It's not unusual for us to go up into somewhere around $8,9, $10 million on IEC spending. This year it's about 5 million total for the candidate season, so it's actually a lot less. But you have some really big players who are putting a lot of money into these IECs to influence your vote. And there's no better example of it than Proposition 131, which is the open primary and ranked choice voting ballot measure where there has been a lot, there's been quite a bit of money that has shown up on that for these IECs. I think right now they've raised more than $10.8 million, and most of it comes from very big ticket donors. Let's talk about some of those big ticket donors, some of the larger organizations or larger contributions that we've been seeing, what are the organizations that have made the most significant contributions, whether it's Proposition 131 or any other local races that we've been seeing? The biggest money on, it has gone to 131. That is money that's come from the Camp Theory, who is the primary backer of it, but there's been a lot of folks that have been putting in money from people who are like hedge fund managers, and we saw a contribution from a gentleman from California in this last election cycle, $321,000, a guy who runs a private equity firm, his name is Jeff Chambers, and this is a guy who backs a lot of conservative causes, so it's interesting that he's now weighed in on 131. But you also see some big dollar going into candidate and into the IECs at back candidates. We've got one race down in Colorado Springs that's already gone over a million dollars from IEC spending, and that's at our IEC fundraising and spending, and that's money that's come from sort of the traditional groups at back Democrats, this is Senate District 12, where Representative Mark Snyder is looking to, who's a Democrat, is looking to succeed, Senator Bob Gardner, who's a Republican, and he's, tonight, is expected to win the seat. So, you see a lot of the sort of the traditional spending that goes into IECs on the Democratic side, which is from unions, for example. Teachers Union, a group called 1635, which is a sort of a dark money group out of out of Washington, DC, that has put a lot of money into Democratic aligned causes and candidates over sort of the past 12 years. Marion, some of the people that we've had on, whether it's for specific races or some of the election ballots that we've discussed that are on the ballot, one of the first things they invoke if they're against or, you know, one of their antagonists or a phrase as well, it's being funded by outside money, it's almost like it's a boogeyman phrase. Should we, as locals here, should we be concerned when we see outside money supporting some of the measures here in Colorado? And I mean, absolutely, you should be concerned, but I will tell you, it is the norm, not the outlier. Outside groups are the ones that fund a lot of this. And groups outside of Colorado, you go through campaign finance reports as I have over the last couple of days, and you're seeing a lot of money that's coming in from groups outside of Colorado. For example, I'll give you a really good example. There's a group called Go Pack, and they have put a million dollars into the Senate majority fund, which is backing Republicans for the State House of State Senate. And that's a, that's a group, that's based in Virginia, for example. So, and that's all outside money. And Go Pack doesn't disclose its donors, so we don't know who's funding them. Marianne, real quick, and wrapping up with you, it may be too simple of a question, but does money fuel win? Most of the time, yes, it does. When you see a million dollars going into from an IEC to back a candidate, such as Mark Snyder down the Colorado Springs, and you look at the person that's running against him is getting almost, is getting less than $100,000 in support. You can imagine what it's like in Colorado Springs right now with mailers and TV ads and everything else. And money talks, it does, it funds, and a lot of these IECs, they pick up their own messaging on what they want to say about a candidate, a candidate that has no say in it. It's a frustration for people, for candidates, because they have no control over what somebody is saying about them and what somebody is paying to say about them. And a lot of the negative advertising that you see is almost always paid for by these independent expenditure groups, as far as candidates are concerned. Chief legislative reporter for Colorado Politics, it's Marianne Goodland. Marianne, we're going to have to have you on again as we get closer to the election. Thank you as always for your time. Absolutely, and I'll be happy to come back. There's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one member FDIC. What if there was a day when we could come together to give to the causes we're most passionate about? Great news, there is. December 10th is Colorado Gives Day, and it's easily the best day to give. All the causes you care about are in one place. So let's start a wave of generosity across the state. Join us in lifting up our local communities. Give now through December 10th at ColoradoGivesDay.org. I don't know if you know this, but when you don't have time to read the Washington Post, you can listen to it. Almost every article has a listening option, and right now, you can become a Washington Post subscriber for just 50 cents a week. It's an incredible deal. Stay on top of what's happening by signing up at washingtonpost.com/pod. That's washingtonpost.com/p-o-d. [MUSIC PLAYING]