It takes someone smarter than a Nobel Prize scientist in physics to figure out the political science of campaign finance for Colorado’s elections. There must be some natural law of physics that describes the opacity of how many candidates are backed by various nondescriptly titled entities such as Unite for Colorado Action, All Together Colorado, Better Colorado Alliance, and Senate Majority.

One law of campaign finance political science is thoroughly tested: lots of money sloshes into campaign committees and sloshes out to polling, mail, video and digital ad companies. These enterprises are hell bent on influencing votes so their candidates win and they can make more money in the next campaign season.

Some campaign funding is straightforward, as it should be. Republican Lang Sias for State Treasurer has paid almost $50,000 to the 76 Group. Pam Anderson for Secretary of State has paid $40,000 to the company. 76 Group is a well-established Colorado and now nationwide public affairs enterprise with an extensive history backing mostly Republican candidates and state policy initiatives.

Similarly, Phil Weiser, Democrat for state Attorney General, has tossed $112,000 to Putnam Partners for ads and $43,000 to Keating Research for polling and consulting. Jena Griswold, Democrat for Secretary of State, has placed $146,000 with 4 Degrees Digital, a Democratic campaign enterprise that focuses on digital ads. She’s also put about $4 million with Bluewest Media, a Denver media ad buyer.

Gov. Jared Polis has purchased more than $3 million in services with Canal Partners Media for ad placements, $335,000 with Precision Strategies for strategic communication and marketing and more than $200,000 with Ridder-Braden, a campaign strategy firm in Colorado.

So far, so clear.

Then there’s Better Colorado Alliance. Its webpage gives no information about the entity. Its Secretary of State (SOS) report states that it’s a campaign committee supporting Democratic House candidates with almost $5 million on top of what each candidate has ginned up.

There’s not supposed to be any discussion between Better Colorado Alliance and individual candidates. The candidates have to live with whatever Better Colorado Alliance gets from its vendors. This includes $357,000 in direct mail that Gumbinner and Davies cooks up based on $456,000 of research by the invisible IRN, a company with no readily available public record, and $293,000 to Blueprint Interactive, a DC digital ad company.

Then there’s almost $5 million gathered by All Together Colorado. According to its website, it is committed to state Senate candidates who will lower costs, protect freedoms and keep our communities safe. Unite for Colorado Action, another committee, has collected $2.5 million to elect state and judicial district candidates that support public safety, free markets and low taxes.

The committees’ websites are equally obtuse. It turns out that All Together Colorado is a Democratic campaign committee committed to electing state Senate candidates. Unite for Colorado Action supports GOP candidates. Both committees have one-page websites that provide no information as to who donates to the funds, which specific candidates they support, or who runs the money. To add to the confusion, Advance Colorado Action pitched in $1 million to Unite for Colorado Action to elect candidates committed to transparency in government. But Advance Colorado Action leaves no trace of transparency related to its donors or supported candidates.

Are All Together Colorado, Unite for Colorado Action and Advance Colorado Action really one entity throwing money in both directions to cover their bases?

Then there’s the Senate Majority Fund with about $6 million. It’s dedicated to “educating the public about their elected officials and candidates seeking office in the Colorado State Senate,” the SOS filing clarifies. The committee supports GOP candidates running for State Senate. According to its SOS report, its largest expenditure was about $600,000 from the Senate Majority Fund to the Senate Majority Fund.

The Colorado General Assembly is in session for 120 days with 100 lawmakers who make about $42,000 as a base salary. Candidates in competitive races have to raise many thousands of dollars and the parties and their supporters raise millions of dollars.

Here’s another law of political science. The big dollar, anonymous campaign committees know that they’re making a relatively small investment to secure a substantial future return on their money.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.