The Denver Post reports that another wave of outside spending is flooding Democratic legislative primaries in and around metro Denver, with more than $1.4 million already spent by early June and more expected before the June 30 primary. The Post says the spending fight is between business-backed outside groups supporting more moderate Democrats and labor-backed groups supporting more progressive candidates, with safe Democratic seats becoming some of Colorado’s most expensive political battlegrounds.
Here we go again. Denver Democrats spend all year clutching pearls about “our sacred democracy,” then primary season arrives and voters get buried in glossy mailers paid for through committees, nonprofits, consultants, lawyers, and political fog machines. Hypocrite much? If voters need a subpoena, a pot of coffee, and a campaign-finance sherpa to figure out who is buying the megaphone, that is not democracy. That is a shell game with better fonts.
The Bullet Point Brief
- The Post says Democratic legislative primaries have already seen more than $1.4 million in outside spending this cycle, after outside groups spent $5 million influencing Democratic races in 2024. Apparently the party of “people-powered politics” comes with bulk postage and a dark-money irrigation system.
- Six PACs supporting more moderate Democrats reportedly raised $769,000 from two outside dark-money groups that disclose little, if anything, about their donors. Transparency is very important, right up until it threatens the business model.
- Nearly $500,000 came from a group called Fair Economy for Coloradans, which the Post says has no publicly disclosed donors. That name has the same energy as “Citizens for Puppies and Sunshine” showing up with a flamethrower.
- The labor side is spending heavily too, with Colorado Labor Action putting more than $500,000 into races and disclosing support from unions including the AFL-CIO and the Colorado Education Association. At least voters can see more of that checkbook. Imagine that. Disclosure did not cause the moon to fall out of the sky.
- The Post describes a tangled web of PACs, dark-money groups, caucus connections, consultants, lawyers, and mailers. In Denver politics, “grassroots” increasingly means someone in a conference room decided which committee name would test best with people who still read postcards.
My Bottom Line
Ordinary voters are being treated like marks. They are told to make informed choices while the professional political class plays hide-the-checkbook behind names that sound like they were generated by a nonprofit mission-statement blender.
And spare us the sermon about democracy. Colorado Democrats lecture the rest of us about dark money, influence, transparency, and protecting the vote, then tolerate a primary ecosystem where voters cannot easily tell who is funding the attacks landing in their mailboxes. The same people who see fascism under every folding chair suddenly become very relaxed when the money cloud helps their side fight over safe seats.
This is not just a Democratic food fight. It is a warning about one-party Colorado. When the real election happens inside one dominant party, the fight for power moves into primaries, PACs, nonprofits, and consultant-managed smoke. Voters get the slogans. Insiders get the plumbing.
The question is simple: Who paid? Who benefited? What rules keep voters in the dark? And why do the same people who cry about democracy keep building systems that make democracy harder to inspect?
If your campaign message cannot survive having the funder’s name attached to it, maybe the problem is not disclosure. Maybe the problem is you.
Source: The Denver Post
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