The question, pitched by Gov. Jared Polis and fellow Democrats in the legislatureÌęto deal with expected tax hikes next year due to rising property values, is the biggest measure on Colorado’s ballot this fall. It’s drawing backing from liberal groups and unions as well as the AARP and the League of Women Voters.

But the complex measure’s potential impact on local property tax revenue, and next year’s state tax refunds, has drawn fire from the Colorado Municipal League, the National Federation of Independent Business and other groups. The CML represents the interests of cities and towns across the state.

That gives the conservative campaign leading the fight more ammunition as it attempts to defeat Proposition HH, putting state officials on the defensive.

RELATED: Colorado voter guide: Stories, explainers and endorsements for the 2023 election

Ballots for the Nov. 7 election will be mailed out by county clerks beginning Oct. 16.

Supporters reported about $854,000 in cash on hand to close out September, according to campaign finance reports due Tuesday. The Property Tax Relief Now committee has raised about $1.1 million total, largely from education organizations, Democratic donor Pat Stryker and the advocacy wing of the nonprofit Gary Community Ventures, a philanthropic organization formerly led by Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.

The major opposition group reported about $833,000 in the bank, out of $1.6 million raised in total. Most of its money, $1 million, has come from Advance Colorado, a nonprofit that backs conservative fiscal policy. Michael Fields, who leads the Advance Colorado Institute, also is the registered agent for the opposition group.

During the most recent reporting period, Sept. 14-27, the supporting committee reported raising about $325,000, nearly all from education groups. The No on HH committee brought in $500,000 from Advance Colorado, as well as a handful of small-dollar donations.

No on HH has spent more so far, including more than $500,000 on digital advertising just before the recent reporting deadline. The proponents, meanwhile, have not reported much spending yet — though that is sure to change as voters start flipping through Blue Books and receiving ballots in the mail.

Much of the money on both sides has come from organizations that aren’t required to disclose individual donors, keeping some sources hidden from public view.

The rundown on Prop HH

Proposition HH seeks to blunt the sharpest spikes in property taxes that are expected next year while giving local governments money to make up for property tax revenue they’d miss out on.

To pay for it, the measure would increase the cap on tax collections imposed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights by 1 percentage point each year. That would increase the state’s budget by about $170 million this year — and up to $2.2 billion per year in a decade.

State officials would use up to 20% of the extra money to backfill the local governments for lost property tax revenue, and they would set aside up to $20 million for rental assistance programs to help residents who aren’t homeowners.

The remainder would go directly to school districts, to offset their lost property tax revenue, and to other education programs — totaling $125 million this upcoming fiscal year and potentially more than $2.1 billion a year within a decade, according to projections.

In another progressive tweak, lawmakers also incorporated into the proposal a one-time flattening of refunds that are due to taxpayers next year under TABOR. If voters pass Prop HH, all taxpayers would receive an estimated refund of $898, according to the Blue Book, versus the typical income-based refunds that send more money to wealthier Coloradans under the premise they paid more in taxes.

Battling campaign messages

Senate President Steve Fenberg highlighted the stakes of Prop HH in a statement provided by the supporting committee.

“Influential organizations … are rallying behind HH because they understand that a 40% (property) tax increase would be devastating for our economy, and especially for seniors, working families, and renters,” Fenberg said. “Proposition HH averts this crisis while also ensuring local schools, fire districts, and communities aren’t harmed — all while preserving TABOR refunds for the future.”

But it’s the future of TABOR that has raised conservatives’ ire.

Opponents argue Prop HH would be a tax increase, since it allows the state to retain more money. Under the direst of predictions, they say it would effectively erase state refunds over the next decade — and savings on property taxes wouldn’t make up the difference.

“The ballot language completely hides the fact that Prop HH would eventually end TABOR tax refunds permanently,” Fields, from the No on HH campaign, wrote in a text message. “The more voters hear about this measure, the worse it does. So we are working hard to make sure everyone hears about it.”

The ballot measure’s long-term effects on TABOR refunds and Coloradans’ overall finances have been a point of much consternation among backers and opponents.

The Colorado Fiscal Institute, a liberal policy think tank that recently endorsed the proposal, could still expect hundreds of dollars’ worth of TABOR refunds per year on average through the next decade.

Other supporters include the AFL-CIO, the Colorado Professional Firefighters and ProgressNow Colorado.

“Hardworking Colorado families and vulnerable seniors who are on the brink are most at risk if we don’t pass Prop HH,” Beth Hendrix, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Colorado, said in a statement, calling it “the most responsible solution” to property tax increases.

Groups that have come out against Prop HH include the Colorado Association of Realtors and the Colorado Special District Association.

Ann Terry, executive director of the Special District Association, called the measure “too complicated” in an interview, even if it contains some relief elements her group might otherwise be able to support. But it “was not thought out and presented to stakeholders in a way where we would be able to understand its current impact and long-term impact,” she said.

If the proposition passes, Terry said, there is wide concern that local governments and special districts won’t be fully reimbursed for tax revenue they would otherwise collect.

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The magazine released the 2021 version of its Forbes 400 list earlier this month. The top spot went to Jeff Bezos, with an estimated $201 billion net worth. The No. 400 slot went to Arkansas investment banker Warren Stephens, worth $2.9 billion.

Here are the seven Coloradans who made the list:

Charles Ergen (No. 56, $13 billion): The 68-year-old Ergen, of Denver, is the cofounder of satellite TV provider Dish Network and satellite communications firm EchoStar. His net worth increased from $9.3 billion on the 2020 list.

Philip Anschutz (No. 66, $10.6 billion): The 81-year-old Anschutz, of Denver, has holdings in oil, real estate and media, including the Denver Gazette and Washington Examiner. The 2020 list put his wealth at $10.1 billion.

John Malone (No. 98, $8.4 billion): Malone, 80, was the CEO of TCI, which was acquired by AT&T in the late 1990s. He is now chairman of Liberty Media, whose holdings include the Atlanta Braves. He was worth $6.5 billion in 2020.

Mark Stevens (No. 224, $4.8 billion): Stevens, 61 and of Steamboat Springs, was a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. He was worth $3.1 billion in 2020.

Kenneth Tuchman (No. 310, $3.7 billion): Tuchman, of Denver, is the founder and CEO of TTEC, which operates call centers. The 61-year-old hadn’t been included among the Forbes 400 since the late 2000s.

Pat Stryker (No. 340, $3.4 billion): The 65-year-old Stryker, of Fort Collins, is the granddaughter of the founder of medical equipment manufacturer Stryker Corp. The 2020 list put her wealth at $2.5 billion.

James Leprino (No. 358, $3.3 billion): Leprino, of Indian Hills, is the CEO of Leprino Foods, which produces cheese for pizza chains like Pizza Hut and is based in the Highland neighborhood. The 83-year-old’s wealth increased 10 percent from the 2020 list.

While the above are the only individuals on the list that Forbes said reside in Colorado, others are connected to the state.

Nuggets and Avalanche owner Stan Kroenke, for example, is No. 70 on the list at $10.7 billion, but his residence is listed as Electra, Texas. And Denver native Robert F. Smith makes the list with $6.7 billion, but he is also listed as living in Texas.

None gained more between March 18, 2020, and Thursday than Charlie Ergen, the co-founder of Dish Network and EchoStar who is now Colorado’s richest person. Ergen $5.4 billion last March and is now worth $10.7 billion, .

That¶¶Òőap a gain of 98% that puts him ahead of investor Philip Anschutz, who saw his net worth drop during the pandemic, from $11 billion to $10.1 billion, or about 8%.

The economic downturn of 2020 was different in some ways than the Great Recession, as seen in these billionaire gains, said , a professor of economics at the University of Denver. The stock market has soared since hitting a nadir in March 2020, bringing investors large gains even as unemployment rates have remained well above pre-pandemic levels.

“As has become painfully clear, the stock market is not, in fact, the economy,” Schneider said. “Recently they are trending quite differently and yes, in a downturn like this if you’re relying on income from work then you’re in a much more vulnerable position.

“This is where the pandemic is very different from the Great Recession,” he added. “During the Great Recession, things happened in financial markets and therefore, of course, the stock market also declined rather rapidly.”

Ken Tuchman, founder of the Englewood-based , saw the largest percentage increase of Colorado’s billionaires — from $1.3 billion in March 2020 to $3.1 billion by Thursday, according to Forbes data. TTEC did not respond to a request for comment.

John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, gained $2.3 billion over the past year and is now worth $8.1 billion. Pat Stryker, the medical technology heiress and Colorado’s richest woman, took in $900 million and is now worth $2.9 billion. And media heir Gary Magness gained $500 million and is worth $1.6 billion. Messages left with their spokespeople were not returned.

Another thing the pandemic has made clear is that billionaires have “delinked” from the rest of the economy, said , a scholar at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies and author of several books on income inequality.

“I was watching billionaire wealth during the Great Recession in 2008-2009, when the total assets of the Forbes 400 went down for four years, declined with the fortunes of everyone else and didn’t recover to 2007 levels until 2013,” he said. “So, I thought (last year) that the economy’s going to get hammered, wealthy people are going to feel the pain like others, and that is clearly not the case.”

The numbers are most stark in Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, which will help determine which party controls the upper chamber of Congress next year. John Hickenlooper, a Democratic challenger, raised $22.6 million and Republican Sen. Cory Gardner raised $7.8 million between July and September.

Hickenlooper’s record-breaking fundraising haul — the largest by any candidate in Colorado history — mirrors similarly historic fundraising totals for Democrats across the country. The Democrat also outraised the Republican in Colorado’s most competitive U.S. House race, for the 3rd Congressional District.

As he has done since entering the race last August, Hickenlooper pulled in large donations from wealthy donors, as well as a large number of small donors. A top Facebook lobbyist gave $2,800 and Twitter’s CFO donated the same amount, as did a Twitter attorney. Samuel R. Walton, heir to the vast Walmart fortune, also wrote a check for $2,800 — the maximum for individuals.

Hickenlooper, who has sworn off corporate political action committees, received $222,853 from other PACs. Donations of $5,000 came from PACs for at least 10 Democratic U.S. senators, as well as unions representing plasterers, cement masons, teachers, machinists and federal employees. Brady PAC, the gun control group, sent along $5,000, as did Planned Parenthood’s political action committee.

Gardner received $277,345 from PACs between July and September, including $5,000 donations from PACs for Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Josh Hawley, as well as the Republican Jewish Coalition, the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, and the pro-Trump Committee to Defend the President.

Individuals donating to Gardner included Jerry Reinsdorf, billionaire owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls, and several members of the billionaire McKee family, creators of Little Debbie snacks. Gardner also received donations from three executives at JBS USA, a Greeley-based meatpacking company that has been criticized for its labor practices during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 3rd District

Colorado’s closest federal race, according to polls, is in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Grand Junction, the Western Slope, Pueblo and all the mountain towns in between. Democratic candidate Diane Mitsch Bush raised $2.6 million, and Republican candidate Lauren Boebert — a front-runner due to the district¶¶Òőap decade-long Republican lean — raised $1.9 million last quarter.

At least nine billionaires donated to Mitsch Bush’s campaign, including Walton and Coloradans Pat Stryker and Kenneth Tuchman. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Gov. Jared Polis donated the maximum $2,800, as did both of Polis’ parents. Jackie and Miguel Bezos — parents of the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos — also wrote $2,800 checks to Mitsch Bush’s campaign.

Mitsch Bush received $129,550 from political action committees, including several unions. A committee for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chipped in, as did gun control groups Brady and Giffords, plus NARAL, an abortion rights group.

Boebert¶¶Òőap single largest supporter, meanwhile, was Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose “20 for 20 Victory Fund” transferred $136,250 to her campaign coffers. She also received donations from some of the U.S. House’s most conservative members, such as Thomas Massie, Andy Biggs and Jim Jordan.

Three members of the Coors family gave a combined $6,100. Colorado billionaire Larry Mizel donated the maximum, $2,800, as did billionaires John and Amy Phelan, and Schlitz beer’s billionaire heir Dick Uihlein. University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl donated $2,000 to Boebert¶¶Òőap campaign.

Between March 18 and July 22, Colorado’s 10 billionaires increased their net worth by a combined $6.9 billion — a 22% gain — according to Forbes data analyzed by Americans for Tax Fairness. Only two of the 10 lost money in the sudden and stark recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic and accompanying shutdowns.

“So few Americans can live such a fabulously wealthy life while everybody else is toiling away, trying to keep their head above water, trying to make it day to day and struggling,” said Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, a national group that advocates for progressive tax policies.

Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chairman of DISH Network, increased his net worth by about $4 billion, or 73%, in the brutal economic months between mid-March and mid-July, according to the Forbes data. Ken Tuchman, founder of the outsourcing company TTEC, increased his worth by $596 million, or 46%. Both men, through spokespeople for their respective companies, declined to comment this week.

Colorado’s wealthiest person, Phil Anschutz, began the recession with $11 billion and now has $11.7 billion. Its second-wealthiest, media tycoon , had $5.8 billion on March 18 and $6.9 billion by Wednesday, according to the data.

“Folks at the top like this are able to accumulate so much wealth for lots of reasons, but one reason is because their wealth is much more lightly taxed than an average person’s salaries and wages,” said Clemente, a wealth tax proponent. “The growth in their wealth is not even taxed unless they sell their wealth.”

Pat Stryker, a medical technology heir and the wealthiest woman in Colorado, increased her wealth by 29% — from $2 billion to $2.6 billion — in the four months from mid-March to mid-July. A spokesperson for Stryker’s Bohemian Foundation in Fort Collins did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Two of Colorado’s billionaires lost money during the tough economic times this year. James Leprino, CEO of Leprino Foods, watched his net worth go from $3.2 billion in March to $3 billion on Wednesday, according to the Forbes data, and financier Thomas Bailey lost a relatively modest $34 million in that time.

Money is also flowing on the corporate side, where the oil and gas industry has set its sights on defeating a ballot measure that would increase setbacks for new wells.

The biggest donors aren’t all in Colorado. Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, has put seven figures into campaigns here. A Silicon Valley donor also poured money into the primary gubernatorial cycle.

Here are the top individual and company/nonprofit contributors to state campaigns this election cycle as of Oct. 31, according to Colorado secretary of state filings. (The list doesn’t include giving to congressional races, which is tracked differently.)

Individual donors

1. Jared Polis:ÌęNo surprise, the biggest donor for the entire election cycle is Polis, a Democratic congressman who is self-funding his campaign for governor against Republican and state Treasurer Walker Stapleton. Polis has put about $22.7 million into his campaign for governor so far. He has also given $25,887 to other Democratic campaigns and causes, including the state party.

2. Michael Bloomberg:Ìę The former New York mayor has donated $2.5 million into Colorado elections. He has put $2 million into Frontier Fairness, an independent political action committee that supported Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Johnston during the primary. Both of Bloomberg’s donations came before the primary, which Polis won. Bloomberg also has put $500,000 into Fair Maps Colorado.

3. Victor Mitchell:ÌęMitchell has donated $1.9 million, most of it to his failed campaign for the Republican nod for governor. The former state lawmaker lost to Stapleton.

4. Pat Stryker:ÌęStryker has donated $1.04 million. The bulk of it Ìę— $1 million — has gone toward Fair Maps Colorado, the group pushing for reforms to redistricting in Colorado. Stryker, of Fort Collins, is a billionaire and philanthropist.

5. Kent Thiry:ÌęThe chief executive officer for DaVita Inc., a dialysis company, has given heavily to redistricting reform, a cause that has bipartisan support. Thiry has given $1.3 million this election cycle, nearly all to Fair Maps Colorado, which he co-chairs.

6. Walker Stapleton: Polis is the wealthiest candidate for governor, but Stapleton is no pauper. The state treasurer has put $1.1 million into the race, most of it into his gubernatorial bid. Before becoming state treasurer, Stapleton ran a real estate company.

7. Reid Hoffman:Ìę He has given $1.02 million this election cycle, most of it to Frontier Fairness PAC before the primaries. Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn, made his fortune in Silicon Valley, where he lives.

8 and 9. Susan Mandel and Stephen Mandel:ÌęThe Mandels are billionaire givers to Democratic causes. Their combined giving in Colorado is $1 million . Each one gave half a million to Frontier Fairness PAC. They live in Greenwich, Conn., and Stephen Mandel is the managing director of Lone Pine Capital, a hedge fund.

10. Peter Coors:ÌęHe has put $289,699 into Republican causes this election cycle. The longtime leader in the beer industry has put most of his contributions into a broad bucket that helps GOP candidates statewide: the Colorado Republican Committee Independent Expenditure Committee.

Note:ÌęBrian Watson, the Republican candidate for treasurer, has loaned his campaign $1.8 million. Under state law, a candidate’s campaign loan can be paid back or forgiven. If Watson were to forgive the entire loan, that would make him the fourth-highest individual donor.

Corporate and nonprofit donors

1. Noble Energy:ÌęThe company has put $7.6 million into this election cycle. Most of it has gone to Protect Colorado, the industry group fighting to defeat the setback measure for new oil and gas development.

2. Anadarko Petroleum Corp.:ÌęAnadarko has put $7 million into the election cycle, nearly all of it toward defeating the setback measure.

3. PDC Energy:ÌęThe natural gas and oil company has put $5.5 million into fighting setbacks.

4. Colorado Petroleum Council:ÌęThe council, a trade industry group, has put $4.5 million toward efforts to defeat the setback measure. Most of it has been in in-kind purchases of services such as advertising and direct mail targeting voters.

5. Extraction Oil & Gas: The company is putting $3.74 million into the election cycle, largely toward defeating the setbacks proposal.

6. Colorado Construction Industry:ÌęThe trade group has put $3.5 million into the election cycle, most of it supporting the ballot measure that would increase the sales tax for transportation projects in Colorado. The measure, if passed by voters, would allow the Colorado Department of Transportation to issue bonds of up to $6 billion for road and other transportation projects.

7. LCV Political Engagement Committee:ÌęThe LCV Political Engagement Committee, part of the League of Conservation Voters, has put $3 million into the Conservation Colorado Victory Fund. The group is backing candidates who support its environmental stances, such as Polis in the governor’s race and Democrat Phil Weiser in the attorney general race against Republican George Brauchler.

8. Workforce Fairness Institute:ÌęThe Workforce Fairness Institute is a Virginia-based organization that advocates for business and reduced government regulations. The organization has put $2.96 million combined into two groups that back Stapleton: Better Colorado Now and Colorado Campaign for Jobs and Opportunity.

9. SRC Energy:ÌęThe oil and gas company has put $2.2 million into defeating setbacks.

10. League of Conservation Voters:ÌęThe Washington, D.C.-based group has put $2.15 million into environmental causes in Colorado this election cycle. Its biggest donation is $1 million to Save Our Neighborhoods, a group working to defeat Amendment 74, which would allow property owners to sue when government actions cause market values to drop.

The fine print: Final figures will likely change as last-minute contributions roll in. The list doesn’t reflect donors to dark-money groups, which can spend money to influence elections but aren’t required to disclose contributors.

But in Colorado, the mood was decidedly different. While voters in the Centennial State helped award Clinton his first term in office, they also passed a statewide constitutional amendment that legalized discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

The passage of Amendment 2 by 53 percent cast a dark shadow on the state. Colorado was dubbed “the Hate State.” There were boycotts against Colorado businesses such as Celestial Seasonings, the Boulder-based tea company. Organizations that had conferences planned in Denver abruptly canceled, costing the city $26 million .

The surprising loss created another byproduct. It propelled the local and national LGBT community on a 26-year political trajectory that created the conditions that have enabled someone such as Jared Polis, an out gay man with a longtime partner and two children, to run for the state’s highest office. If elected, Polis, a Democrat, would be the first gay man ever elected governor of a state.

“We had to respond,” said Ted Trimpa, a lawyer, lobbyist and longtime gay rights activists. “The community and a number of individuals really stepped up and created an environment where LGBT people could run for office comfortably.”

Polis isn’t the only gay person on Colorado’s ballot this November. There are six LGBT candidates running for the statehouse, including the state’s first transgender candidate for the House of Representatives. If each of them wins, Colorado will have seven LGBT lawmakers at the statehouse next year. These individuals are benefiting from more than two decades of a well-financed and methodical political and social campaign to change the way Coloradans view their gay and transgender neighbors.

Across the nation, activists also A record number of 244 out candidates are running for office at various levels of government, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a nonpartisan organization that aims to help elect LGBT candidates.

“We feel like we’ve already won,” said Annise Parker, the fund’s president and CEO. “When we run openly, run effectively, the community wins.”

Early foundation in Colorado

After voters approved Amendment 2, more than 100 organizations meant to mobilize the LGBT community and their allies popped up in Colorado. Arguably the most successful was Equality Colorado.

“Equality Colorado was an outgrowth of the disaster,” said Sue Anderson, the organization’s first director. “We really didn’t have a strong and viable statewide political organization that could represent us at the legislature and do the organizing and education work that needed to happen.”

Anderson and her team went to work training gay men and women on how to come out and share their stories. They also formed early bonds with leaders in the faith community, helped start the first gay-straight alliance groups in schools, and hired a rural coordinator who helped provide LGBT resources in public libraries.

“He put a lot of miles on the car,” Anderson said.

At the same time, Tim Gill, a technology entrepreneur, started his own foundation and the Gay and Lesbian Fund, which donated to civic and artistic efforts in all corners of the state. The idea was in part to normalize the words “gay” and “lesbian” for Coloradans.

“Significant investments were made to change the story about LGBTQ people,” said Daniel Ramos, the executive director of One Colorado, the state’s largest gay and transgender rights organization. “The investments were made at a time when Coloradans needed to be introduced to their LGBTQ neighbors.”

Coalitions, victories and setbacks

While the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled Amendment 2 unconstitutional in 1996,Ìęit didn’t stop Colorado lawmakers — especially Republicans — from pushing anti-gay legislation at the state and federal level.

By 2004, Gill and three other wealthy Coloradans, including Polis, pooled their vast resources to help elect more Democrats to the state legislature. The goal in part was to elect enough lawmakers to stop anti-gay legislation and push incremental protections for LGBT people.

On the same night that President George W. Bush, who stumped for a constitutional amendment defining marriage between a man and a woman, won re-election,Ìęthe Colorado state legislature flipped to Democratic control.

To the shock of the state’s political establishment, Colorado was no longer a Republican stronghold.

Under Republican Gov. Bill Owens, Democratic lawmakers were slow to enact a sweeping agenda. However, a bill that added protections for transgender individuals under the state’s existing hate-crime statutes did become law.

In 2006, Coloradans approved a statewide constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and rejected a proposal to create domestic partnerships. However, Bill Ritter, a Democrat, easily won the governor’s mansion.

With Democrats controlling both chambers in the legislature and the governor’s office, lawmakers went to work passing piecemeal protections for LGBT people. New state laws included protections at work, housing and public accommodations, and adoption rights. Today, Colorado is still one of only a few states with broad protections for gay and transgender people.

Soon more LGBT people were elected, including Pat Steadman and Lucia Guzman in the state Senate, and Sue Schafer and Mark Ferrandino in the state House.

These lawmakers also assumed leadership roles within the General Assembly. Steadman would serve several years on the powerful joint budget committee. Guzman would lead the Democratic caucus until she stepped down this year. And Ferrandino became the first gay man to be speaker of the House.

After years of building momentum, Colorado’s LGBT community and its leaders launched its most ambitious effort. Steadman and Ferrandino introduced a bill during the 2011 session to create civil unions here. It would be a three-year pitched battle that included Republicans taking the extraordinary step of shutting down debate on the legislation on the second to last day of the 2012 legislative session. In doing so, they killed dozens of other bills and turned public opinion against the party. A year later, Republicans lost control of the statehouse and Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, signed civil union legislation into law.

The aforementioned electoral and legislative victories, coupled with intense grassroots activism by LGBT Coloradans, have only helped the broader public accept LGBT people — and consider voting for them.

“Americans, especially Coloradans, are ready for their elected officials to look like Colorado,” said Sonya Jaquez Lewis, an out lesbian who is running to represent a part of Boulder in the state House. “That¶¶Òőap what¶¶Òőap happening this year.”

Identity politics

Despite Polis’ historic candidacy, there are gay men who don’t plan to vote for him. One of them is Kenneth Wilkison, treasurer of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans.

“I just don’t believe what Polis wants to do is good for Colorado,” Wilkison said, adding that he believes Colorado Republicans have moved on from their fight over LGBT rights. “I don’t fear (Republican gubernatorial candidate) Walker Stapleton reversing any of my rights as a gay person.”

What is important to him, he said, is keeping taxes low, protecting the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, and balancing the state’s oil and gas sector with renewable energy and the environment.

The state’s gay Republican organization hasÌęformally endorsed Stapleton and four other Republicans running for statewide office.

“For gays to vote for another gay just because he’s gay makes them a single-issue voter,” said George Gramer, president of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans. “I’m a multi-issue voter. I’m for the economy. I’m for keeping jobs. I’m for reasonable health care.”

Supporters of Polis agree: Voters should elect the Democrat on the issues.

“Our candidates aren’t running because they’re LGBT,” said Parker, president of the Victory Fund. “They run because they want to serve their community.”

Anderson, who began Equality Colorado, put it another way.

“If Walker Stapleton suddenly came out as gay — and he isn’t — I wouldn’t vote for him because I don’t support his values and policies he espouses,” she said.

New threats, new action

A rash of “bathroom bills” in other state legislatures that would prevent transgender people from using the facilities that match their gender presentation and panic over the Trump administration have renewed activism across the country and inspired a historic number of LGBT people, people of color and women to run for office. The message from LGBT community organizers is simple: While same-sex marriage is the law of the land, the fight for full equality is far from over.

“For the first time in a long time, the community feels threatened,” Parker said. “Some of our candidates are running because of immigration issues. A huge number of trans candidates are running because they saw bad bills in state legislatures last year. They feel they’re under attack and they want do so something.”

One of those people is Brianna Titone, a Democrat running in Arvada to fill an open seat left by Rep. Lang Sais, Stapleton’s running mate. If elected, she will be the first transgender person to serve in Colorado’s General Assembly.

“After the 2016 election, it was clear to me that we needed better leadership at all levels,” she said.

Titone, a geologist, has a long history of giving back, including several years as a volunteer firefighter. While she was inspired to run in part to advance transgender rights, she said she spends most of her time talking about what matters to voters: more money for teachers and more transparency in government.

Since launching her campaign, Titone has been subjected to harassment from “trolls” on social media, she said. But her gender transition has not been an issue to voters she’s met with in her district.

“A lot of people are confused about my voice,” she said, with a laugh. “They don’t ask about it, and I don’t bring it up unless they get my pronouns wrong. I think they realize that I’m really putting myself out there. I think people just want someone to relate to.”

Update:ÌęAn earlier version of this storyÌęincorrectly characterized Jared Polis’ relationship with MarlonÌęReis. They are partners. An earlier version also incorrectly reported the record number of LGBT lawmakers in the state legislature. That number is eight.ÌęÌę

His success in the early days of the internet fueled a career that made him and — with the June 26 primary fast approaching — the five-term congressman is using that wealth to try to leverage another political victory.

As of Monday, Polis had given his campaign more than $11.2 million — a sum that dwarfs the budgets of his rivals, and one that¶¶Òőap already more than the combined spending of every candidate who ran for governor in 2014.

The money-bomb has elicited criticism from his opponents, who complain he’s trying to buy the race. But it has also exposed what could be the biggest irony of the fight to succeed Gov. John Hickenlooper.

For much of the wealth Polis earned as aÌęsuccessful businessman is being used to convince voters that he is, in fact, a successful businessman — and not just another Boulder Democrat who fought the oil and gas industry over fracking.

The effort’s success or failure could determine whether Polis becomes Colorado’s 43rd governor.

“I think the Polis campaign is trying to get his business record out there, but unfortunately I think it¶¶Òőap bouncing off of the shield of people’s preconceived notions about an openly gay congressman from Boulder,” said Ian Silverii, executive director of the liberal group ProgressNow Colorado, which Polis helped start.

Polis has seen his share of success — from riding the 1990s dot-com boom to, more recently, opening a chain of Spanish-language movie theaters.

There has also been criticism, much of it tied to past pro-business votes in Congress and the breadth of his financial portfolio.

Polis’ career parallels some of the biggest economic stories of the past 30 years, from his time during his late teens as a floor trader in post-communist Russia to his use of the internet to upend a well-established industry: the flower business.

His first business teacher? A grandmother

Polis’ first taste of commerce came early.

As a child, he traveled with his parents and grandmother to help with the family business, Blue Mountain Arts, a folksy greeting card company that, years later, would rock the internet and make a fortune for the Boulder clan.

But in the 1980s, it was still a niche company run by Susan Polis Schutz and Steve Schutz. Polis said his role then was to hawk cards and books at trade shows with his grandmother June Polis.

“She was on her feet in high heels for 12 hours a day selling, and I really just learned a lot of my work ethic from her,” he said.

In high school, Polis took his first stab at running his own operation. The hustle involved Polis buying surplus goods from the U.S. Department of Defense — “lots of steel, or helmets or shell casings,” he said — and then turning it around for a profit.

“I would figure out what I could sell it for in the recycling market before making the bid, and I would bid slightly lower to give myself a margin to arrange for trucking and transportation,” he said.

Typically, the stuff he won on auction went straight to the buyer, but an exception was the day he bought 1,000 rubber galoshes for about $40 and had it sent home. (In high school, Polis’ family split time between Colorado and California.)

“We were not too thrilled,” his mother said. “We barely could move around all of them.”

Polis ultimately gave away the galoshes, but he said the experience in dealing with government surplus was enlightening.

“Everything you bought came with a receipt that showed the price the government originally paid for it,” said Polis, citing an example inÌęwhich he purchased an unused heat sink forÌę$5 or $10 that cost taxpayers $1,200. “I was shocked at the waste.”

Rather than take a job as a lifeguard — as some of his high-school peers did — Polis spent the summer of 1992, when he was 17, making money in post-Soviet Russia. “What an exciting time,” he said.

His thinking was that Russia offered “so much opportunity” because its people were “just figuring out this whole capitalism thing.”

He said much of his two months in Moscow was spent as a floor trader on Russia’s nascent commodities market.

Oftentimes, he was the only American — a factor that may have proved advantageous.

“When I was buying something people would go ‘Oh, my God, the American’s buying it; maybe it¶¶Òőap hot,’” said Polis, who — without revealing specifics — added that he “made a good profit that more than paid for the trip.”

Connecting people online in the 1990s

Polis’ interest in business didn’t stop after he enrolled at Princeton in 1993.

There, he teamed up with two other “computer geeks” to launch what Polis calls his “first real company.”

The business model was relatively simple. In the early 1990s, internet access often was limited to places such as college campuses, and Polis and his friends figured that recent graduates would want to stay connected.

So they formed a company that provided internet service — not grasping its full potential at first.

“Little did we know the market would be 1,000 times bigger than just college students who were graduating (and who) wanted to keep their internet account,” Polis said.

After raising some capital, the Illinois-based business, American Information Systems, took off and their dorm-room idea later sold for more than $22 million.

Jonathan King, who worked there, said Polis was, even then, looking at the next big idea.

“We were building the plumbing,” King said. But he said Polis saw that “entire sectors of the economy (were) going to change” because of the internet.

Indeed, one of Polis’ next moves started when he still was with American Information Systems. While the company began as an internet service provider, it later expanded to offer other services, including web hosting and consulting.

One client was Blue Mountain Arts, the family business.

“We made a little website,” Polis said.

Initially, it wasn’t much, but that changed after Polis’ father — also a computer aficionado — created an electronic greeting card.

He did it as a novelty, Polis said, but afterward, the family decided to post more e-cards online. Soon web traffic exploded — driven by internet users intrigued by the idea of sending birthday wishes electronically.

The success prompted the family to spin off the e-card business into its own company, and in 1999, they sold it for $780 million.

The timing couldn’t have been better for them — or worse for Excite@Home, the that bought them.

The dot-com bubble popped a few months later, and Excite@Home would go on to ; it later sold the e-card piece for a it paid.

“We thought the property was massively interesting from a traffic perspective but also massively undermonetized,” said George Bell, then the CEO of Excite@Home.

He said the idea was to sell ads on the site, but the hoped-for revenues “turned out to be too optimistic.”

“With the value of hindsight, I would say it was the wrong decision,” said Bell, now with Care.com. “We shouldn’t have bought the company, or at least not at the amount that we paid.”

The Blue Mountain sale coincided with the rise of another Polis project — an online shop called ProFlowers.

Its aim was to streamline the florist supply chain by “allowing people to order flowers directly from the grower,” Polis said.

That way, he added the “flowers were fresher and they also accrued less overhead along the way.”

It quickly became a success. Polis took the company public in 2003, about five years after he tested the idea during a Valentine’s Day trial run. Not long after that, he sold the venture’s parent company for $477 million.

Another venture was a chain of Spanish-language movie theaters, called Cinema Latino, that he founded in 2001 and sold to management in 2008 — a move that current president and CEO Louis Sullivan-Olmos said kept the company intact.

“Jared wasn’t making a dollar-and-cents decision,” he said. “He was making a human decision.”

A $1 million state school board campaign

It was about this period that Polis started to play a greater role in Colorado politics, an interest backed up by a reservoir of financial resources.

In 2000, he won a seat on the Colorado State Board of Education by a . His $1 million campaign for the little-known position included a tour of the state in what media reports described as a “.”

More notable was his alliance with three like-minded donors: Rutt Bridges, Tim Gill and Pat Stryker. The so-called “Gang of Four” spent millions of dollars to build a political machine in 2004 that enabled Colorado Democrats to take control of the legislature for the first time in four decades.

The moves didn’t go unnoticed by Colorado Republicans, but it wasn’t until Polis made a run at Congress in 2008 that his big-spending, hard-charging ways really drew the attention of his fellow Democrats.

In that race, Polis spent $6 million of his own money to topple another Democrat — Joan Fitz-Gerald, a former state Senate president — to win Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District.

The race was contentious, and part of the Fitz-Gerald campaign’s knock on Polis was that he hadn’t paid income taxes for several years. This was true. But then, as now, the Polis campaign said it was because the boom-bust cycle of startup companies meant there were some years in which he made a lot of money and some years in which he took a loss.

Indeed, Polis’ broad business portfolio long has been political fodder. The financial disclosure he filed with Congress for 2015 was and listed dozens of assets. His overall net worth that year wasÌębetween $142 million and $468 million. (The lack of specificity is due to the fact that assets are tallied in price ranges and not exact costs).

The varied interests have elicited criticism from the right — such as his stake in the health care sector. And a relatively small investmentÌęin the oil and gas industry . Polis’ response has been to say that he created a blind trust “to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

On policy issues, Polis’ wealth and business background has helped him carve a niche among Colorado Democrats. He clashed with much of the state party establishment in 2014 by championing an effort to put on the ballot two initiatives to restrict fracking. (Polis ultimately backed off.)

But Polis drew fire from environmentalists in 2015 for backing efforts to of a controversial trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Early in his congressional career, Polis by Democratic leaders to increase taxes on the wealthy, saying it would . Last year, he said he favored – although he ultimately opposed a Republican measure to drop it even lower.

“I strongly support simplifying our tax code and reducing rates, but the Republican tax scheme only plunges us deeper into debt,” he said at the time.

Asked how his time in business would impact how he would serve as governor, Polis said he would use his skills at shaking up an entrenched system — a la ProFlowers — to advance two very liberal causes: getting Colorado on 100 percent renewable energy by 2040 and advocating for universal health care.

“Through my life, I’ve always been a dreamer and had big ideas,” Polis said. “I would bring that same chutzpah to the governorship.”

“Watch the ending!” Hickenlooper said from his office Monday, as Judah’s dad and Fray lead singer Isaac sat next to him. “I’ve deleted like 80,000 things from my phone, but not this, because when I’m depressed I just want to watch Judah drumming.”

Hickenlooper’s goal of giving every Colorado child the same chance atÌęmusical self-expression moved a step closer to reality Monday with the unveiling of his ambitious new music-education nonprofit, with help from some of the region’s most powerful music-industry machinery and creative talent.

The goal of the newly named Colorado Music Coalition — and its — is to give every child in Colorado, from kindergarten through 12th grade, access to musical instruments and professional instruction.

As a warm-up act, Take Note will hold a fundraising concert Ìęwith marquee Colorado acts Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Slade, Todd Park Mohr (Big Head Todd and the Monsters), Tracksuit Wedding, Billy Nershi (The String Cheese Incident) and others to be announced.ÌęTickets are $25-$55 and on sale at 10 a.m. March 10 via .

More than 28,000 students in Colorado attend schools that do not offer formal arts education, and 50 percent of the state’s high schoolers are not in art classes, according to a 2014 survey by Colorado Creative Industries. Multiple national studies have also shown that children with music education have higher overall academic achievement and lower dropout rates, the Colorado Music Coalition said.

However, the current state of music education in Colorado is so poorly understood that one of the first goals for , chairwoman of the Colorado Music Coalition, is to research it more fully. That’s why the coalition hiredÌęKaren Radman, formerly of the Denver Public Schools Foundation, as executive director.

“I’m much more tactical than creative, so having that experience in one of the country’s biggest school districts will be extremely beneficial to us,” Radman said.

“We don’t want to just come in with a formula, because if one exists we certainly don’t know it,” said Slade, who serves as co-chairman of Take Note with Hickenlooper. “We want to be known for listening before we tell everybody what they need.”

Hickenlooper and musician Anschutz, who plays in Tracksuit Wedding and is the daughter of Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz (as well as director of community relations at AEG Live),Ìęhatched the concept in June at an event for the national Ìęprogram at Libby Anschutz’s home.

“When I got into this I thought I was going to be developing a board of directors for Little Kids Rock,” Anschutz said. “It was the governor and these other folks who really broadened that vision.”

After they brought in Slade and some of their friends and business connections, including AEG Live Rocky Mountains president Chuck Morris and Pat Stryker, the billionaire backer of the Bohemian Foundation in Fort Collins, the coalition began looking for models for the type of work they wanted to do — only to find there were none, at least at the statewide level.

Supporters of music education have increasingly relied on charities and unconventional financial support to keep programs alive amid widespread cuts to arts education. On Monday, for example, Grammy-winning Chicago artist Chance the Rapper announced he will to pay for art programs after he learned of Chicago Public Schools’ $215 million budget shortfall.

Hickenlooper is, by any standard, unusually supportive of local music. In addition to appearing on stage at Red Rocks and other venues with Colorado musicians, he has sung their praises nationally and welcomed them into his office — starting with Slade a mere six months into his job as mayor of Denver.

“I don’t know of any other person in a major political office who has supported music like he has,” said Morris, a longtime Denver promoter. “He has made all of our jobs easier — for a band to become famous, for a promoter to do well.”

Between ticket sales and sponsorships, Colorado Music Coalition hopes to raise $500,000 from the May 4 concert, which it will add to gifts of an undisclosed amount from the Anschutz and Bohemian foundations. Mile High United Way will handle the Colorado Music Coalition’s finances until the group gets its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS.

For the program to be self-sustaining, it will have to exist for about a decade with an annual budget of $8 million to $10 million, Hickenlooper estimated.

“We’ll have to reach out there and create that critical mass,” said Hickenlooper, who said $10 million seems modest compared with the estimated $4.5 billion the state already spends on public education (42nd in the nation) and nearly $1 billion spent by education nonprofits. “If Colorado musicians really buy into this, I think the public buys into this and it becomes a national model.”

Despite having a board that includes employeesÌęof AEG Live, which dominates the Denver market and owns AXS — the company that officially — Hickenlooper and Slade said other promoters and musicians will have a chance to take part.

“We’re still working that out, but trust me, once we get the language right and figure out how to make this vision a reality, people are going to want to participate,” Hickenlooper said. “This is something no other state in the country has ever done.”

“One of my greatest regrets in life is that I never put in the time when I was young to be good enough to play in a band,” Hickenlooper added. “Now I have a chance to start fanning those flames in a whole new generation.”

The Colorado residents who qualify for theÌęÌęcan be counted on one hand, andÌęthe five fingers on that hand haven’t changed inÌęa long time.

Charlie Ergen, CEO of Dish Network, remains Colorado’s richest resident with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $14.7 billion. That is down from $16.4 billion on the , but enough to holdÌętheÌę28th spot overall. Forbes provides aÌęreal-time measure of net worth based on changing stock values and that shows Ergen’s net worth, which is concentrated in his satellite television holdings, is now closer to $15.9 billion.

Philip Anschutz, who hasÌęa diversified set ofÌęinvestments from sports teams to movie theaters, is worth $10.8 billion, which ranks 39th nationally and second in Colorado. His net worth dropped a tad from $10.9 billion in the 2015 list, where he ranked 43rd nationally.

Cable magnate John Malone ranked third in Colorado and 61st nationally with a net worth of $7.2 billion. That is flat with last year, whenÌęhe ranked 68th.

James Leprino, chairman of mozzarella cheese maker Leprino Foods, ranks 232nd on the list with a net worth of $2.9 billion, down from a net worth of $3 billion that rankedÌę211th on last year’s list.

Fort Collins resident Pat Stryker ranks fifth of the Colorado group with a net worth of $2.6 billion, but she has advanced the most inÌęthe rankings, moving up 60 spots the past two years to 264th place. StrykerÌęis the granddaughter of Homer Stryker,ÌęwhoÌęmade his fortuneÌęselling hospital beds and other medical equipment.

Making the cutoff forÌęthe 2016 list required a net worth of $1.7 billion and Forbes countsÌę153 U.S. billionaires who didn’t make the cut.

In light of some of the themes this election season, Forbes looked into the share of immigrants makingÌęits 400 richest list. One in 10 were born outside the country, and they have a combined net worth of $250 billion.

Forbes also estimates that Donald Trump’s net worth is $3.7 billion, ranking 153rd and down $800 million from last year due to a softening in New York real estate market. Trump has contested such rankings, arguingÌęthey undervalue assets like hisÌębrand name.

If Trump is elected, he would become the nation’s . His net worth as calculated by Forbes is seven times that of George Washington, who has held the richest U.S. president spot from day one withÌęa net worth of $525 million in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to .