Press conferences convene almost daily in the West Foyer of the state Capitol, but the Americans for Prosperity gathering felt bigger, like a dress rehearsal for 2018.

Some of the biggest names in Colorado Republican politics took turns at the microphone talking to political activists, operatives and donors Thursday: State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and District Attorney George Brauchler, followed Senate President Kevin Grantham and House Republican Leader Patrick Neville.

Each sounded very much like a person hankering to move 40 yards down the hall to the governor’s office. None of them have officially announced their candidacy.

For context as solid as the building’s rose marble corridors, Americans for Prosperity is the political arm of the conservative donor network led by billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch. In September, the Kochs merged other conservative advocacy groups into AFP: the LIBRE Initiative, Concerned Veterans for America and Generation Opportunity to target Latinos, veterans and millennials, respectively. Each had tables set up at the Capitol Thursday.

The presumed frontrunner from the speculative field, Stapleton, pointed out he was the chairman on the No on 69 campaign to defeat a ballot question last November that would have set up ColoradoCare, the nation’s first statewide single-payer health care system. “We beat the pants off that thing, which would have bankrupted the state,” he said.

On transportation needs, Stapleton said Democrats want to ask voters to foot the bill in November, even while the Colorado Department of Transportation builds a headquarters next to Mile High Stadium.

“That is tone deaf,” Stapleton said, wearing a green AFP shirt between his dress shirt and tie and his suit coat. “They need to have skin in the game. Going to the taxpayers for a $9 billion tax increase is a policy non-starter, and that is not the way we fund our infrastructure future in the state of Colorado.”

CDOT has said it has $9 billion in needs, but legislators have discussed seeking a bond issue for only about one-third of that. Republicans have proposed getting at least some of the money from the state’s existing budget. Neville wants all of it to come from there, which would mean cuts to other state programs.

House Speaker Crisanta Duran said Wednesday that she wouldn’t accept a deal that takes money out of education.

Coffman spoke of her court battles to defend the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the holy grail to Colorado fiscal conservatives since it entered the state Constitution in 1992 to keep government growth in check.

She said if the case goes to the Supreme Court she hoped – name drop – Judge Neil Gorsuch of Denver will be confirmed to the high court.

“Is that great?” Coffman said to applause. “He’s an excellent jurist for us.”

She cited her involvement in fighting President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

“Many good things are happening on the legal front in Colorado, and you are champions for us and the taxpayers,” she told the conservative activists. “And it is my privilege as attorney general to be part of that fight on behalf of individual rights and state sovereignty.”

Brauchler cited his work opposing Amendment 69 and congratulated the AFP volunteers for helping to defeat it.

“We defeated that not because of some individuals, but because of you guys,” he said. “I really appreciate that.”

Brauchler sought to distance Colorado from other places.

“We’re all conservatives, but I don’t ever want us to get lost in the idea that we’re the kind of conservatives we see at the sea level,” he said, winding up a hyperbolic political pitch.

“We’re not. We’re Colorado conservatives. We’re different, right? We’re special. We’re more liberty-minded than others, and that’s what drove us uphill one mile to live in an arid place where the sun beats on you harder than it beats on you anywhere else, where you have to breathe harder just to sustain life, where we get the vigorous part of all four seasons sometimes over lunch.”

Grantham thanked the Americans for Prosperity activists for being active.

“It’s important for us to know where the constituents stand on important issues, issues that matter to you, issues that make a difference in your daily life,” he said.

Grantham thanked them for “helping to give a voice to all Coloradans, including you, for those who seek fiscal restraint.”

Neville told the crowd that the people in the Capitol work for them, and they shouldn’t forget it.

“The government should work for the working people, and that’s important,” he said. “I’ve got some bad news for you, and some good news, too. The bad news is the liberal Democrats want to hold your country hostage for their liberal special interests. The good news is they’ve openly admitted that, so we can hold them accountable in the next election cycle, right?”

State Sen. Matt Jones, a Democrat from Louisville, spoke about the conclave a few feet away, as the crowd was dispersing. He acknowledge Americans for Prosperity’s outsized influence over Republican politicians in Colorado, noting that last year Bill Cadman of Colorado Springs said he wouldn’t be Senate president without AFP.

Democrats said then it just proved Republicans chase after big corporate money.

“You had all the Republican gubernatorial candidates here, most of the Republican legislators,” Jones said. “If we’re going to look after middle-class people, these aren’t the people to look to.”

As far as Democrats not supporting business, “I think that’s baloney,” Jones said.

“I think we look out particularly for small businesses,” he said. “We have a program that’s statewide that I ran a bill on that allows people to save money in their business as an option and clean up their energy supply at the same time, so that’s just not true.”