If campaign dollars equal votes, incumbent Gov. John Hickenlooper took a commanding lead from late July to late August, raising more than twice the tally of Republican challenger Bob Beauprez.
The fundraising may have been fueled, at least in part, about the closeness of the race — surprising, given that Beauprez lost the governor’s race to non-incumbent Bill Ritter in 2006 by 17 percentage points.
The Democrat raised $545,791 from July 27 to Aug. 27, compared to Beauprez’s $223,510, a filed with the Secretary of State’s Office.
Beauprez’s camp was unfazed.
“Every day it seems like there’s another example of why John Hickenlooper isn’t fit to lead Colorado,” said Allen Fuller, Beauprez’s campaign spokesman. “He’s going to need every dime he can get.”
Hickenlooper’s campaign spent nearly all of what it raised during the reporting period, but still has $760,427.02 in cash on hand for the final two months of the race. Beauprez’s camp spent $120,283.23 and had $334,365.62 left in its war chest.
“We are humbled by the amount of support we’ve received from people across Colorado,” Hickenlooper campaign manager Brad Komar said in a statement about the report’s 2,257 individual donors. “Colorado’s economy continues adding jobs. We just recorded our 33rd consecutive month of job growth and saw the unemployment number drop to 5.3 percent. Coloradans are getting behind our campaign because they know the economy and jobs are our no. 1 priority.”
The campaign said that it has reserved $2 million in TV advertising, so far, for the final leg of the race.
