If progressive mega-donors George Soros and Tom Steyer really wanted to help Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, they might consider funneling a few bucks to legislative Republicans.

Instead, the big-spending liberals are sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into flipping control of the state Legislature to Democrats, targeting the three most competitive state Senate races in an attempt to erase the GOP’s one-seat majority in November.

Soros and Steyer have both written modest individual checks of $400 or less to five Democratic House and Senate candidates, but it’s their independent expenditures that worry Republicans. Steyer’s NextGen Climate Action has sunk $200,000 into the Conservation Colorado Victory Fund, which has raised $1 million to “elect pro-conservation champions to the Colorado legislature.”

Meanwhile, Soros’s Immigrant Voters Win PAC has shuffled $155,000 to its Colorado arm, Immigrant Voters Win CO, which is also backing legislative Democrats.

“There’s a lot of outside money pouring into the state to flip the Senate to Democrat so they have that control again,” said Republican state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg.

While that influx of outside cash comes as great news for most Democrats, the prospect of an all-Democratic Legislature represents a decidedly mixed bag for Hickenlooper. Some insiders say he was forced to face his most difficult managerial moments in office after another out-of-state billionaire helped the Democrats capture both houses in 2012.

Four years ago, the billionaire in question was former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the issue was firearms. With Republicans unable to check him and Democrats unwilling to challenge him, Bloomberg’s attempts helped shepherd the passage of a package of gun-control bills, triggering a populist uprising. In an unmatched display in recent times, thousands of gun owners descended upon the state Capitol to voice their discontent over those measures.

Colorado Democrats paid a heavy political price with the historic recalls of two Democratic state senators in 2013, including Senate Majority Leader John Morse. Meanwhile, the get-along, drama-averse Hickenlooper was vilified as an anti-gun extremist as he struggled to defend measures he signed but never sought.

“He had a very difficult 2013-14 term after the Democrats took both houses,” said Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli. “It was a very controversial time for a moderate Democrat.”

The hottest legislative contest in Colorado lies in Senate District 19, where Democrat former state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger faces off against Republican state Sen. Laura Woods in a repeat of their close 2012 contest. Zenzinger holds the fundraising lead with more than $208,000 versus about $132,000 for Woods.

The other Senate contests targeted by Soros and Steyer are for open seats: Senate District 26, pitting Democratic state Rep. Daniel Kagan against Republican Nancy Doty, and Senate District 25, featuring Democrat former state Rep. Jenise May against Republican state Rep. Kevin Priola.

Soros and Steyer are also playing in two House races: House District 31, which finds Democrat state Rep. Joe Salazar facing a challenge from Republican Jessica Sandgren, and House District 17, in which Democrat former state Rep. Tony Exum Jr. seeks to unseat Republican state Rep. Kit Roupe.

What would Soros and Steyer expect in return if Democrats secure the Senate? With Soros, it could be almost anything: As head of the Open Society Foundations, Soros has been involved for years on a broad range of issues, including anti-Israel activism, abortion, Black Lives Matter, marijuana legalization and global warming.

Steyer, on the other hand, has focused exclusively on climate change, which could prove tricky if the San Francisco environmentalist decides to target the governor’s allies in the oil-and-gas industry with anti-fracking legislation.

“I think fracking probably would be the issue they [Democrats] would put on his desk if they had the votes to pass a fracking ban or the equivalent of a fracking ban, by empowering local governments to pass unrealistic setbacks,” said Republican strategist Dick Wadhams. “I think that’s exactly where they’d go if they had a hard liberal majority.”

Not surprisingly, the oil-and-gas industry is throwing its support behind GOP legislative candidates. While Democrats hold a 2-to-1 advantage in “gray money,” according to an analysis by the Colorado Independent, Republicans have stayed competitive in part with contributions from Encana and Noble Energy to the Senate Majority Fund, which has raised about $2 million.

Democrats, led by Hickenlooper, have long sought to avoid a political war with the oil-and-gas industry by keeping a lid on fracking activists. Hickenlooper stopped an anti-fracking ballot measure backed by Democratic Rep. Jared Polis from reaching the November 2014 ballot in exchange for additional restrictions on the industry.

But a bill backed by powerful donors like Soros and Steyer would place the governor in a bind.

“And the question would be, what would he do? Would he veto it? If he vetoes it, he’s killing any national opportunity to join a Clinton administration,” said Wadhams. “It puts him in a real predicament, in some ways even tougher than the gun legislation, because I think he basically agreed with the gun legislation. He didn’t want to sign it, but he basically agreed with it. But he sincerely believes banning fracking is stupid. And yet the political pressure from the left wing of his party would be extraordinary if these bills were passed by a Democratic majority.”

Of course, those questions only come into play if Hickenlooper is still occupying the governor’s office next year, which is by no means a given. Speculation has swirled for months that the governor has an exit strategy in the form of a cabinet appointment if Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton captures the presidency in November, though he has brushed aside showing any real interest.

The stars appear to the aligning for the governor. Not only did he receive a featured speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention, but fellow Coloradan, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was named chairman last month of the Clinton campaign’s White House transition team.

The term-limited governor raised his national profile in May with the release of his autobiography, “The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer and Politics.”

“I have taken the view for some time now that he is definitely interested in Washington. He’s toward the end of his term. There’s no really political alternatives for him. He’s term-limited,” Ciruli said. “He was on the list, albeit somewhat low, for vice president and was given a very prestigious spot at the national convention.”

For politics watchers, any doubt about Hickenlooper’s interest in a jump to Washington was erased with the leak of a draft executive order in late August imposing tighter emissions limits in order to comply with President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

If Hickenlooper issues such an order – and he has said that the document was created for discussion purposes – it would presumably help smooth his strained relationship with the environmental movement, although that’s not a given.

After the order was leaked, the Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate blasted Hickenlooper’s goal of a 25 percent reduction in power-sector carbon-dioxide emissions by 2025 as inadequate, calling it a “greenwashing sham.”

That tension could limit Hickenlooper’s prospects for a position closely linked to environmental issues.

“It could be Commerce, it could be Energy. I doubt if he would want to be Interior – he’d have all of the environmentalists going slightly wild about it,” Ciruli said. “But the others are certainly possibilities.”

Republicans, meanwhile, have slammed Hickenlooper for considering what they describe as an “unlawful order” as a way of raising his national profile.

“What I think is going on is he wants a position in Hillary West, in her cabinet,” said Republican state Sen. John Cooke. “I think he wants some cabinet position, and I think he’s playing politics with the economy and the lives of Coloradans to advance his political career.”

Again, Hickenlooper has downplayed the possibility of a move to Washington, telling reporters during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that, “It’s pretty unlikely that I would take a cabinet post to be very blunt.”

But that was before Soros and Steyer entered the picture.

“The worst case scenario for Gov. Hickenlooper is to have Democratic majorities in both houses that will send him bills that he will not want to deal with,” Wadhams said. “Although he might not be around. It might not matter because if Hillary Clinton wins this election, I don’t think he can pack his bags fast enough to get out of Colorado and take whatever she offers him.”