While most eyes last fall were on the flamboyant billionaire who ran for and ultimately won the presidency, another billionaire – just as politically engaged but far more obscure – was discreetly pouring money into the race for Colorado’s First Judicial District attorney. Yup, a little ol’ DA’s race in Jefferson and Gilpin counties, just west of Denver.

It’s a safe bet most Americans never have heard of George Soros, yet the expatriate Hungarian has donated untold millions of dollars to left-of-center political causes around the globe. And while a lot of his political giving involves high-profile efforts, his financial empire’s late-in-the-game, $1.3 million investment in the Jeffco D.A.’s race – in an attempt to defeat popular Republican incumbent Pete Weir – remained pretty much below the radar until almost the eleventh hour. That’s when word got out; the media got wise, and Weir’s bipartisan allies closed ranks.

In the end, Soros, who won a lot of dustups elsewhere last November, walked away a loser in Colorado, and the many critics of big money in politics felt that for once they had something to cheer.

In today’s Washington Examiner, investigative reporter Todd Shepherd recounts the lopsided political face-off. He offers an enlightening blueprint not only of how big money can move in on local politics – but also of how locals sometimes push back and win. Shepherd notes that Soros’s Jeffco bid was one of numerous attempts around the country to elect prosecutors who would be more sympathetic to Soros’s brand of social justice and who might move beyond a more conventional approach to law and order. In Colorado, however, all the spending apparently backfired:

For Pete Weir, the incumbent district attorney and lifelong Republican who outlasted the $1.3 million aimed against him, a long and bipartisan track record in criminal justice certainly helped. But the race likely became a referendum on Soros and his tactics the minute the billionaire cut the first check to his independent expenditure committee.

Colorado political analyst Eric Sondermann says once the donations to Weir’s challenger became known, “the magnitude of Soros’ engagement was exposed and became an issue, perhaps the issue, in the contest.”

Weir got a bipartisan boost when former Gov. Bill Ritter, a lifelong Democrat and a former prosecutor, penned an op-ed slamming the Soros machine. The editorial was published just as mail-in ballots were being delivered to voters’ homes. Two more Democrat prosecutors later vouched for Weir, authoring another op-ed in the paper of record, titled, “George Soros’ unwelcome intrusion into a Colorado district attorney race.”

Last Nov. 8, Weir wound up defeating Democratic challenger Jake Lilly 53 percent to 47 percent after fighting an uphill battle against an avalanche of Soros’s spending.

Read the full story by the Washington-based Shepherd, who was a longtime media presence in Colorado as the founder of news site Complete Colorado and as the resident investigative journalist at the libertarian-leaning Independence Institute in Denver.