The last of the statewide ballot measures awaiting review – a campaign finance initiative – cleared the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office Tuesday, making it a baker’s dozen of questions voters will be asked to decide in November.

The measure is a constitutional amendment on campaign finance, initiative 173, backed by former state Rep. BJ Nikkel, R-Loveland, and former state Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray.

Sponsors turned in a record 212,332 signatures, with 98,492 required to make the ballot. Of the signatures submitted, 136,328 were deemed valid.

Initiative 173 is known as “Stop Buying Our Elections.” Its funders are unknown.

If adopted by voters, the measure would change certain campaign finance limits for candidates running for state-level office – governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer and members of the Colorado General Assembly.

Currently, the state limit on donations is $400 per election cycle for the state House and Senate and $1,150 for the statewide offices. The measure would amend campaign finance limits established in Amendment 27, approved by voters in 2002.

According to Brophy and Nikkel, when a candidate puts $1 million or more into his or her own campaign, the campaign contribution limits for everyone else in the same race “go up five times, so you can raise enough money to compete with the millionaire or billionaire trying to buy the election.”

The measure targets candidates wealthy enough to fund their races with millions of dollars, like this year’s gubernatorial nominees, Democrat Jared Polis and Republican Walker Stapleton, as well as businessman and former state Rep. Victor Mitchell, the Douglas County Republican who lost to Stapleton in the primary. Polis has so far put $12.875 million into his campaign, while Stapleton has ponied up just over $1 million, and Mitchell spent nearly $5 million on his race..

The amendment’s effects would also be triggered by certain independent expenditure committees that back specific candidates, Brophy said – such as Frontier Fairness, which supported Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Johnston and took in $2 million in contributions from billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

Of the other dozen ballot measures now set for November, four are statutory, two seek changes to the state constitution and six are constitutional amendments that were referred by the General Assembly.

Statutory:

Constitutional:

The six measures referred by the General Assembly: