June 04, 2010 07:48 PM UTC

Winners and Losers: State-Level Fundraising

• 13 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

The reporting period for candidates running for state-level races ended last week, the first monthly reporting deadline now that we have closed within six months of the General Election.

Click below to see our Winners & Losers from the fundraising period that was, and let us know in the comments section about candidates for the state legislature who did particularly good or bad.

Note that the Winners & Losers here are selected based purely on how they raised and spent their money recently; we’re not making judgments here on other aspects of their respective campaigns.

WINNERS

John Hickenlooper (D-Governor)

The Denver Mayor raised an impressive $372,451 in just one month, which is a ton of cash to collect when the limits are only $1,000. Hick has already banked $850,000 of TV time for the fall, and in five months has raised $1.56 million. Hickenlooper’s reputation as a great fundraiser has certainly proved to be accurate.

Scott McInnis (R-Governor)

The Republican frontrunner for Governor had a solid month of May, bringing home $251,970 for a total cash-on-hand amount of $582,674. Unfortunately for McInnis, he has to watch Hickenlooper buy up cheaper airtime while he socks money away for his Primary date with State Convention winner Dan Maes. Yet for all McInnis’ problems as a candidate, and there are many, fundraising has not been one of them.

Stan Garnett (D-Attorney General)

Garnett raised $66,301 in May (leaving him a total of $85,570 cash-on-hand), which was significantly more than any other candidate not running for Governor. Of course, it should be said that Garnett is still probably picking up some of the low-hanging fruit after only announcing his candidacy in late March, but his reputation for deep financial connections seems to be true.

Cary Kennedy (D-Treasurer) and Walker Stapleton (R-Treasurer)

Kennedy and Stapleton had oddly similar months, with the incumbent Kennedy raising $38,782 and Stapleton bringing in $37,055. Check out how the two candidates now compare overall:

Kennedy: $449,091 raised/$279,805 cash-on-hand

Stapleton: $459,618 raised*/$280,404 cash-on-hand

*The caveat here is that Stapleton has contributed $115,000 of his own money to his campaign, so overall, Kennedy has been the stronger fundraiser. In fact, Kennedy has raised more money in total than any statewide candidate aside from Governor.

LOSERS

Bernie Buescher (D-Secretary of State)

With just $6,800 raised, Buescher had the worst fundraising period of any of the statewide candidates. Fortunately for Buescher, his $74,125 cash-on-hand is still three times as much as his hole-in-the-pockets Republican challenger Scott Gessler. Buescher is probably the safest incumbent on the ballot in terms of statewide candidates, but he still needs to ratchet up the fundraising to make sure that he doesn’t get surprised at the last minute.

Scott Gessler (R-Secretary of State)

Enough said.

J.J. Ament (R-Treasurer)

Ament had a nice month of May in getting the GOP nod at the state convention and knocking out one of his two Primary challengers, Ali Hasan. But his $11,845 raised in May was significantly less than fellow Republican Walker Stapleton, who now has $200,000 more cash-on-hand. Ament needs to do a lot better in June if he is going to beat Stapleton in the GOP Primary.

Dan Maes (R-Governor)

Despite beating McInnis at the state convention for top line on the GOP ballot, Maes only raised $34,682 in May. Maes has just over $21,000 cash-on-hand, most of which is probably earmarked already for gas money. Maes will need to do MUCH more than this if he’s going to have any chance of beating McInnis in August.