Way back in 2008, when I was running for the United States Congress, I attended a “candidate school” put on by campaign experts. The purpose of the three-day event was to help candidates understand what things actually helped a campaign and which things didn’t really help at all.

A lesson we were taught was most regular Americans just don’t care about politics early in the election cycle. The instructor even called us the strange ones for caring about elections in April. People will start to care, we learned, after both major parties have their nominating conventions, and then especially in September and October. And so now as election season is nearly fully upon us, we should expect lots and lots of advertising online and on TV, radio and, well, pretty much everywhere.

The Republicans went first with their doom-and-gloom convention, and the Democrats are now also done and have nominated a much stronger couple of candidates than most people thought would happen just a few short weeks ago. And by most measures, the Democratic convention was a tad long each night, but filled with remarkable speeches, combined with interesting and often touching stories from regular folks. And if you want to measure by cool celebrities, the GOP had Hulk Hogan, and the Dems had Oprah.

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There are several election-related stories in Colorado Politics that are worth checking out, beginning with the reporting of the imminent dropping out of the presidential race by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. To borrow a word from the Dem’s VP nominee, RFK Jr. is, well, weird. And he’s weird in a dangerous way. His anti-vax nonsense is filled with bad interpretations of bad scientific “studies.”

He is apparently going to endorse former President Donald Trump, which should tell you something about his level of commitment to honor and integrity. If you don’t believe me, just ask any bear cub you happen to find in Central Park. Kennedy’s campaign has only two major problems: the candidate is a nut, and they have no money. His “team” has announced he will “address the nation” on Friday to talk about the future of his campaign or lack thereof. For Kennedy, “addressing the nation” means talking to the handful of reporters that will show up.

Another interesting CoPo story you should check out reports on a pretty darn rare political event here in Colorado, wherein an unaffiliated candidate has managed to get his or her name on the November ballot. In this case, a gentleman named Daniel Campaña did what few have ever done by getting either 1,000 petition signatures or the signatures of at least 5% of the number of votes cast in the last election to qualify for the ballot. Campaña’s story is especially interesting in several prominent Democrats, including State Sen. Tony Exum, have endorsed the unaffiliated candidate over the Dem that is running. We’ll see what happens come Election Day, though the district appears pretty red.

Lastly I want to talk about CoPo’s reporting on Adam Frisch over in CD3. You will likely recall in the last election, Frisch came within a whisker of beating our national embarrassment, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and I fully expected him to defeat her in 2024. Apparently, so did Boebert, who beat a hasty retreat over to the east side of the state, taking advantage of the unexpected retirement of Ken Buck, who became so sick of the kind of politics Boebert engaged in he up and quit. It is not without irony Boebert won the CD4 primary and is heavily favored in that dark-red district this autumn.

So, Frisch finds himself running against a completely different person, an unknown first-time candidate. Frisch has a war chest of roughly $2.5 million, a stunning amount for a congressional campaign, and reflective of the national disgust with Boebert. So, what’s a candidate to do when he has lots of money and a no-name opponent? Well, you can get on TV early, which is exactly what Frisch did. Heck, he even had an ad during the Olympics opening ceremony.

I’m guessing for the previous year or more, the Frisch team dialed in their attacks on Boebert. Now, with her gone, Frisch is following a pretty smart path, given his financial advantage. He is running lots of ads even I see over here in Colorado Springs, and in those ads, Frisch stresses his independence and willingness to work with both sides. That’s a pretty admirable point of view, in my opinion, but of course the GOPers are attacking him for being so reasonable. But Frisch has the money to counter those attacks, and I bet that is what he will be doing for the next 73 days or so.

After my aforementioned 2008 quixotic campaign ended, I asked several experts if there was any amount of money that, had I had it, I could have won in the deep red CD-5. After all, a private poll I commissioned showed when voters were given my full history (career military officer and such) and Doug Lamborn’s full history, I actually won, 52% to 48%. The experts’ opinions varied, but the consensus was if I had $2 million to spend, I could have won by running a media blitz highlighting my differences from Mr. Lamborn. I raised a total of $248,000, so was a tad shy of the total needed, but it is fun to think about.

The Frisch campaign will be an interesting test of the role of money in politics. If he wins, as I surely hope he will, we will have yet another example of money talks. If he loses, I’m not entirely sure what the message would be. It’s going to be an interesting 73 days.

Stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.