Gobs of money have poured into Colorado’s primary campaigns. The funds are focused on races where the competition between Democrats will decide who goes to the Capitol in 2025. That is, whoever wins these races wins the seat and preserves the dominant Democratic majority.

Who’s raising and channeling the money offers mysteries to thrill the most conspiratorial of conspiracy theorists. Even so, in many of these races, there are breadcrumbs leading to likely perpetrators of barely disguised election-buying schemes allowed by our current campaign finance laws.

Tops is the CD2 state Board of Education race. Since current Gov. Jared Polis self-funded and won his first election as a young man seeking a political career using several hundred thousand dollars from his own bank account, no state board of ed seat has seen so much campaign money. But now, an Independent Expenditure Committee (IEC), deceptively named Progressives Supporting Teachers and Students, has ginned up more than $550,000 to support a politically inexperienced, pro-charter/choice candidate, Marisol Rodriguez, who our pro-charter/choice governor is aggressively pushing. In contrast, her opponent, Kathy Gephardt, who served as president of the Boulder Valley School Board for two years, has deep knowledge of critical policy issues facing public education today.

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Progressives Supporting Teachers and Students is an arm of the Colorado League of Charter Schools that has dumped $125,000 into this IEC. This investment is cheap security to protect its interests. Charter schools have led the way in re-segregating public schools and siphoned off more than $1 billion in public money to schools that don’t live up to the accountability, academic and financial transparency standards of traditional public schools.

The deep pocket man sitting in the governor’s office has his mitts all over these dark dollars. So far, these “Progressives” have pitched $144,835 for mailers with the governor’s endorsement of Rodriguez. Meanwhile, Gebhardt, who’s raised $53,000 from ordinary citizens and an additional $3,100 from the teachers’ St Vrain Valley Education Association Small Donor Committee, has fully revealed the sources of funds that have come her way. She’s clearly out-monied. This race is a test of whether CD2 voters can work their way through the well-funded special interests.

The legislative races offer their own funding dark alleys. Here are some examples. There’s a campaign committee called One Main Street Colorado operated by Andrew Short. Short’s LinkedIn site says he’s an “advocate” and a “champion.” In this case, he’s championing $300,000 from One Main Street to One Main Street IEC to A Whole Lot of People for Change. A Whole Lot of People for Change is supporting “pragmatic candidates from all political parties…that believe in rebuilding Colorado’s middle class and strengthening our local economy.” Adding to the Whole Lot of People committee is the We Are Colorado Business Coalition with an additional $145,000.

Three beneficiaries of A Whole Lot of People Committee money are Rebekah Stewart-D, a Lakewood city council member running for HD-30 at $64,694; Cecelia Espenoza-D, a migrant attorney and federal appellate judge for HD-4 in Denver at $26,750; and Michael Carter-D, member of the Aurora School Board, running for HD36-D in Aurora at $24,427. A Whole Lot of People apparently believes these candidates will be more business-friendly than their opponents.

To be clear, these candidates do not have control of A Whole Lot of People’s funding decisions or support. That’s part of the problem. The impact of this amount of money flowing into targeted neighborhoods without voters knowing who’s behind the dollars is deceptive to supported candidates, their opponents and the voters of the districts.

Kyra DeGruy-Kennedy-D, running against Stewart, is a former leader of the Young Invincibles, a non-profit introducing young people to the political world. She has worked at the Capitol on health care and mental health issues. Tim Hernandez-D is running against Espenoza in Denver. He’s a teacher and an appointed House representative who is an outspoken supporter of students of color who struggle as young people in today’s Denver economy. Bryan Lindstrom-D in Aurora is a teacher running against Carter. He has organized protests against the effect of capitalism on the state’s social and economic structures.

All of these candidates have raised roughly the same amount of money for their campaigns. The dark money from A Whole Lot of People for Change, who may actually be two or three people, will likely have a huge impact.

Another legislative race singles out a current House Representative for a money-dump to his opponent. Rep. Mike Weissman-D, HD-36, and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is running for Senate District 28 in Aurora against Idris Keith, an attorney and active contributor to Aurora’s civic life. Here’s the dark-money trail against Weissman. Democracy Wins out of Washington, D.C. gave $315,000 to Brighter Colorado Futures 527. Brighter Colorado Futures gave another $13,000 to Brighter Colorado Futures 527. Brighter Colorado Futures 527 then contributed $320,000 to Representation Matters IEC that has spent $271,111 supporting Idris Keith.

Weissman has raised almost $110,000 mostly from individual contributors, with about $17,000 from donor committees including unions. The union connection is clear for most Democrats. Keith has raised $67,000 from individual donors, with $6,200 from the Colorado Medical Society. Nothing unusual in these candidate reports.

Weissman’s voting record is in line with most other Democrats in the House. But clearly the representative doesn’t meet some people’s standards for “good governance,” the criterion offered by “Representation Matters” as its core raison d’être. The “good governance” word choice is odd in relation to Weissman, as he’s known as the legislator who strives to clean up lobbying and campaign finance reporting. Is that the problem, one questions?

So there you have an overview of the money picture for the 2024 primaries. Voters should be suspicious of committee names on mailers that contain the words “progressives,” “brighter,” “stronger,” “future,” “representation,” “Main Street” and “people.” If someone knocks on a door to talk about candidates, voters should ask if the person standing in front of them is paid to do so. With these cautions related to committee names and hired election help, voters may determine whether money underwriting the mailer or the door-knocker has a legitimate, transparent source.

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