Raising Colorado. Prosperity Through Property Rights.  Colorado Working Families Party. These are some of the names that are showing up on campaign fliers and other materials designed to sway votes for major party candidates in the June 26 primary.

They’re “independent expenditure committees,” or IECs – groups that spend money to back candidates but don’t coordinate their efforts with them.

These IECs are backing candidates up and down the primary ballot, from governor to the statehouse, and the spending is way beyond what’s taken place in prior election cycles.

Traditionally, IECs don’t start spending the big bucks until after the primary election, when the final candidates for office are set.

In 2016, just three big-dollar IECs – Common Sense Values and Colorado Citizens’ Alliance, both backing Democrats for the state House and Senate, and Colorado Citizens for Accountable Government, a Republican-supporting group – spent a combined $10.7 million to sway voters for the 2016 general election.

But then came 2018, with a hotter-than-hot governor’s race, with a first Democratic primary in more than 30 years. The June ballot shows 33 contested primaries: 18 at the state House and Senate and the rest for statewide offices like governor, treasurer and attorney general.

So what are the IECs doing in the 2018 primaries? Mostly backing candidates for governor, but their influence is also showing up in the down-ballot races.

The IECs listed with the Secretary of State’s TRACER system spent $3.6 million just in May, more than ten times what was spent in May 2016. Most of that is spending on the primary races for governor.

The biggest spender among the gubernatorial IECs in May was Teachers for Kennedy, which spent $1.516 million, much of it on attack ads targeting fellow Democrats Michael Johnston of Denver and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder.

Better Colorado Now, which backs Republican state Treasurer Walker Stapleton, spent $242,000 in May. Among those expenses, two contributions totaling $157,500 to an anti-Victor Mitchell group, Real Colorado Conservatives, which spent $106,000 running anti-Mitchell ads.

Stapleton was criticized last August when he appeared at a fundraiser for Better Colorado Now, which took place before he had officially announced he was running for governor. By law, candidates and IECs are prohibited from coordinating with each other.

The IECs are also paying a lot more attention, and money, to primary races for the state House of Representatives and Senate. They have a good track record to rely on.

In 2016, there were actually more contested primaries for state House and Senate seats than in 2018.  All 10 state House and Senate candidates backed in the primaries by the two biggest IECs – Raising Colorado and Assuring Quality Healthcare Access for Colorado – won their primaries and the general election races, too.

Those two big players in 2016 spent just under $177,000 on primary races. Raising Colorado spent more than $122,400 backing six Democratic candidates for the House and two for the Senate. Raising Colorado’s only source of funds in 2016 was Education Reform Now Advocacy, a New York “dark money” group, one that doesn’t disclose its donors.

The other big player in the 2016 primaries was Assuring Quality Healthcare Access for Colorado, which spent $54,000 on two Senate primaries: backing then-candidate and now Republican Sen. Bob Gardner of Colorado Springs and then-candidate and now Democratic Sen. Rhonda Fields of Aurora. Assuring Quality Healthcare is also a dark money group whose donors are other IECs and committees that don’t disclose their source of funds.

Ready for a repeat in 2018? It’s more money; just in May, the IECs spent about $400,000, more than double the amount spent in May 2016.

Raising Colorado and Assuring Quality Healthcare continue to be big spenders on primary races for the state House and Senate. Raising Colorado has so far spent just under $16,000 in May on three House races, all for Democrats:

Assuring Quality Healthcare has spent much more – almost $150,000 in May – to sway the races for Tipper; Valdez; Zach Neumann, who’s running for Senate District 32 against two other Democrats hoping to success Sen. Irene Aguilar of Denver; and Colin Larson, one of two Republican candidates hoping to succeed Rep. Justin Everett of Littleton, who’s running for state treasurer.

An IEC which works with the National Realtors Fund, Prosperity Through Property Rights, spent $49,771 to back Republican Rep. Lois Landgraf of Colorado Springs and Neumann.

Another IEC spending cash in the primaries is the Colorado Growth Initiative, although who this IEC is backing is unknown. Its statement of purpose says it will support candidates at either the executive or legislative branch who support free market and pro-economic growth.

Its registered agent is Alex Hornaday, who shares a law office with former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, who has a long history with campaign finance committees. Gessler is the registered agent for Victor Mitchell’s campaign finance committee.

Colorado Growth’s biggest donor is JM Capital Partners of Denver, at $140,000 of the $156,000 it’s raised in the past year.

Another IEC that has yet to show its cards is Colorado Resistance, which has so far raised almost $30,000 to back Democratic candidates for the House and Senate but has yet to spend it in support of any one candidate. Its donors are publicly disclosed and the majority appear to come from Boulder.

A Strong Colorado has spent close to $20,000 in May backing just one primary candidate: Republican Sen. Ray Scott of Grand Junction, who is running against Rep. Dan Thurlow. The biggest donor to A Strong Colorado is Extraction Oil & Gas, at $10,000.

Blueflower Action, which supports Democratic women candidates, has spent just close to $22,000 to back three candidates:

Blueflower Action’s donors are publicly listed and this year have primarily been women, including former Speaker of the House Dickey Lee Hullinghorst and former Lt. Gov. Gail Schoettler.

An IEC known as Colorado Working Families Party is backing Gonzales and Rep. Joe Salazar for attorney general and has spent more than $19,000. Its biggest donor, at $100,000, is the Service Employees International Union.