Colorado has never seen a campaign finance report like the one filed last week by Democrat Adam Frisch.

after nearly beating Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert last year in the GOP-leaning 3rd Congressional, Frisch is seeking a rematch, and so far, he’s outraising the incumbent by leaps and bounds.

Until this year, Boebert, who is seeking a third term, has recently ruled the roost as the state’s premiere congressional fundraiser, posting totals many times what her fellow House members and their challengers have pulled in.

But she’s met her match in Frisch, whose calling card has essentially been that he’s the anti-Boebert, an antidote to what he terms – in a seemingly endless cavalcade of fundraising emails and social media appeals – the incumbent’s “angertainment” approach to politics.

Coming within 546 votes of unseating Boebert in a district that tilts roughly 9 points toward Republicans, in what turned out to be the closest congressional race in the country last year, only amps up the stakes, apparently, since Frisch raised more this past quarter than all but one House candidate nationwide and more than any Colorado House candidate ever has.

That he did it in the traditionally sleepy off-year only underlines the enormity of Frisch’s achievement.

A year out from the 2024 election, polls are scarce – and can only hint at the state of the race, since voters aren’t paying as much attention as they will be by next summer – so fundraising reports are virtually the only concrete measure of campaigns’ relative standing.

Money isn’t everything – just ask the plethora of deep-pocketed self-funders who poured their children’s inheritance into unsuccessful runs for office – but it matters, particularly early on when candidates can spend the money they’ve raised to make more money and bank big bucks for the expensive final push.

Campaign fundraising records can be a dime a dozen. Political reporters have been known to roll their figurative eyes at the gyrations campaigns will go through to get “record-setting” into a story. The most raised by a non-gubernatorial statewide executive candidate in an initial quarter during an off-year before the advent of modern campaign finance limits? Sure, sounds like a record.

Reporting on quarterly campaign totals can feel sometimes like Oprah: You’ve got a record! And you’ve got a record! 

But in Frisch’s case, it’s indisputable.

The magnitude of Frisch’s fundraising is hard to express.

While the headline-grabbing Boebert has reported quarterly contribution totals similar to what she raised last cycle, the record-shattering receipts posted by her leading Democratic challenger have pushed the district’s dollars into the stratosphere.

For the just-completed third quarter, from July 1 to Sept. 30, Frisch raised nearly $3.4 million, almost exactly four times the roughly $850,000 raised by Boebert.

Frisch finished the period with more than $4.3 million on hand, just over three times the $1.4 million Boebert had in the bank.

Both candidates face primary challengers.

Grand Junction Republican Jeff Hurd, an attorney and newcomer to politics, raised just over $400,000 in the third quarter, his first in the race, and had about $350,000 on hand. Another Republican, Russ Andrews, had just over $260,000 in the bank after loaning himself more than $250,000.

Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout, a Democrat, raised just over $100,000 during the period, her first as a candidate, and had about $40,000 left to spend.

One of the state’s foremost political strategists told Colorado Politics not to discount Frisch’s overwhelming fundraising edge.

“This is such a massive number that it clearly puts Adam in great position,” said Craig Hughes, a Democratic consultant and partner at Hilltop Public Solutions. “He’s not only raising money – clearly, it costs money to raise money – but he’s banking enough that’s going to continue to grow. Once those donors have given once, you can go back to them again and again.”

Hughes, who has helmed some of the state’s most competitive – and expensive – races, including U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s runs, said a strong financial advantage can make a big difference in the sprawling 3rd CD.

“This type of money will let Adam communicate to voters in a way he couldn’t do in 2022 with a much more limited budget,” Hughes said. “This is a district that encompasses all of Colorado’s four media markets – all the candidates in CD3 are running almost a statewide campaign – making it very expensive to compete in. You have to communicate to a lot of voters, and that costs a tremendous amount of money.”

While he hasn’t worked for Frisch or opposed Boebert – Hughes said with a chuckle he was as surprised as anyone that the race was so close last time – Hughes said that he’s slated to run an independent expenditure campaign in the district next year.

Acknowledging that Boebert continues to raise money at “a very solid clip,” Hughes added that Frisch could be able to make effective use of all the money he brings in, unlike independent groups, which can face “a little bit of a diminishing return.”

“When you’re on a campaign side, that money is always incredibly valuable – you can buy more TV time, hire more staff, put it into field efforts, door-to-door,” he said. “There is no diminishing return.”

Boebert’s campaign team downplayed Frisch’s most recent haul, suggesting that all the money in the world won’t be enough to overcome her advantages in the largely rural, conservative-minded district.

He just might be able to put that proposition to the test.

It’s the third quarter running that Frisch has raised more than all the other Colorado congressional candidates combined.

It’s also the third consecutive quarter that Frisch has broken his own state record for off-year fundraising by a House candidate.

The previous off-year apogee was set by Boebert in the third quarter of 2021, when she raised $990,000, but Frisch nearly doubled that in this year’s first quarter, hauling in more than $1.7 million.

Before Boebert thrust the 3rd CD into the national spotlight in 2020, Colorado House candidates in battleground seats reached record territory with more modest sums. The off-year record she broke was held for years by former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, who raised $566,000 in the second quarter of 2013, when he was gearing up to fend off a challenge from Democrat Andrew Romanoff.

Frisch has rewritten the record books, obliterating even the election-year records set by other state congressional candidates.

The $3.4 million raised by Frisch surpasses the previous record-setting $3.2 million reported for the second quarter of 2008 by Democrat Jared Polis, who mostly self-funded his run. Among candidates who didn’t self-fund, Democrat Jason Crow set the previous high-water mark overall in the third quarter of 2018, raising $2.2 million on his way to defeating Coffman.

Frisch has been dominating fundraising in Colorado all year but didn’t vie for the top spot nationally until the most recent quarter.

Only former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican known as one of the best fundraisers the House has ever seen, exceeded Frisch’s receipts among congressional candidates – incumbents or challengers – in the third quarter, with $4.8 million to Frisch’s $3.4 million. The next-best total for a House candidate was the $2.1 million raised by Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, with Ohio Republican Jim Jordan posting $1.7 million to nab fourth place.

Rankings don’t include the multiple House members who are running for the Senate. Nor do they reflect funds raised by leadership PACs, which are typically distributed to other candidates.

For the first quarter which ended on March 31, Frisch raised $1.7 million – more than twice the $763,000 raised by Boebert – but landed behind a handful of the preeminent House fundraisers.

McCarthy led the pack for the period at $3.8 million, with Jeffries at his heels with nearly $3.7 million. Then came Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana at $2.7 million, followed closely by California Democrat Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley and raised $2.6 million. Frisch finished in fifth place for the quarter.

McCarthy again blew away the competition in the second quarter, covering donations received from April 1 through June 30, but this time only Scalise also outraised Frisch, who was both the top Democratic House candidate and the leading challenger.

The soon-to-be-former speaker brought in $5.3 million to Scalise’s nearly $2.9 million, with Frisch depositing $2.6 million. The next-closest House candidate for the quarter was Jeffries, who raked in just over $2 million.

Ernest Luning has covered politics for Colorado Politics and its predecessor publication, The Colorado Statesman, since 2009. He’s analyzed the exploits, foibles and history of state campaigns and politicians since 2018 in the weekly Trail Mix column.