The Denver Post reports that spending in key Colorado primary races topped $67 million, with most of the money aimed at Democratic contests for statewide and federal office. The cash storm bought the usual campaign buffet: mailers, door knockers, TV ads, digital ads, polling, staff, consultants, infrastructure, and enough glossy nonsense to make every mailbox in Colorado beg for mercy.
But here is the useful part: big money did not always win. The Post found that four of the most-moneyed candidates for statewide or federal office won their primaries, and four lost. So no, money is not irrelevant. Let’s not be cute. Money matters plenty. But Colorado voters are apparently not vending machines where you insert $67 million and receive power.
That deserves a dry smile. Not a parade. The grift industry will be back tomorrow with a new invoice and the same dead eyes.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado’s key primaries burned through roughly $67 million. That is obscene for state-level politics. At some point, this stops looking like civic participation and starts looking like an industry with yard signs.
- Almost $25 million came through super PACs and outside groups. The Post notes those groups operate with varying levels of opacity. Translation: voters got carpet-bombed by ads from organizations with names that sound like they were assembled by a focus group trapped in an airport conference room.
- Michael Bloomberg dropped $5 million into a super PAC backing Michael Bennet. Bennet still lost the Democratic governor primary to Phil Weiser by more than 13 percentage points. Apparently even billionaire money cannot buy a personality transplant.
- Manny Rutinel got the most outside help in the 8th Congressional District Democratic primary. The Post reports $5.5 million in outside money benefited Rutinel, compared with $1.7 million for Shannon Bird. Rutinel won and now faces Republican Gabe Evans in what will almost certainly become another financial dumpster fire with TV ads.
- Diana DeGette had more than $2.3 million in outside money rush in to defend her seat. Melat Kiros beat her anyway by 13.4 percentage points, with just over $500,000 in outside support and less than $600,000 in direct campaign spending. That is the kind of result that makes consultants stare silently at a PowerPoint and question their life choices.
My Bottom Line
The lesson is not “money doesn’t matter.” Of course it matters. It buys volume. It buys saturation. It buys consultants, data, polling, ads, mail, staff, and enough manufactured momentum to make a mediocre campaign look alive for three weeks.
But money cannot buy trust. It cannot buy local credibility. It cannot buy a candidate who sounds like a human being. And it still cannot force voters to behave like livestock with ballots, no matter how many outside groups, rich ideological hobbyists, and party operators believe otherwise.
The campaign-industrial complex hates that. These people treat elections like procurement contracts. Raise the money, hire the firm, dump the mail, blast the ads, repeat the slogan, invoice the donor, pretend democracy happened. Then voters occasionally walk into the booth and ruin the business plan.
That does not mean the system is healthy. Big money losing some races does not cleanse the swamp. It just proves voters sometimes dodge the dumbest punch. Colorado politics is still drowning in outside cash, consultant fog, dark-money machinery, and candidates whose main qualification is making donors anxious in the right direction.
So enjoy the moment, briefly. The public declined to be managed in a few big races. Good. Now brace yourself. The next wave is coming, especially in CD-8, where the Post reminds us more than $40 million was spent in 2024. Political money can buy volume, but it still cannot buy a soul. Colorado voters apparently noticed.
Source: Denver Post
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