Every election cycle, the mailboxes of Colorado voters are stuffed with glossy campaign flyers. Big smiles and crossed arms, cheery buzzwords and frosty warnings, Hollywood flashes and ominous shadows — all staring up from your kitchen counter.
But who’s sending these mailers? Who paid for that gloss? Each mailer will — or should, legally — have a disclaimer describing who cut the check. Sometimes, it’s the candidate’s own campaign, like Polis for Colorado. Easy enough to tell who’s behind that one.
Colorado voter guide: Stories and explainers for the 2026 primary election
But often, that little disclaimer identifies an outside group with a vague name that may or may not provide any insight into who actually paid for the mailer and why. A classic example of this phenomenon was "A Whole Lot of People for Change," a dark-money group that was part of a multimillion-dollar spending effort to influence Colorado's Democratic primaries in 2024.
So, in honor of another primary season festooned with mailers and Names From the Shadow Realm, we decided to test readers' ability to identify who is paying for these mailers and for what purpose. Allow us to present Guess Who (Paid For It).
Did you crush this quiz? Or did you do worse than you expected? Don't feel bad -- that might be the point of these vague PAC names. In any case, let political reporter Seth Klamann know how you did -- and whether you look to see who paid for a mailer when you receive it -- at sklamann@denverpost.com.
