July 05, 2017 03:43 PM UTC

Phil Weiser Puts Down One Hell of a Marker in AG Race

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Ernest Luning reports for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman:

Democratic attorney general candidate Phil Weiser raised roughly $355,000 in the fundraising quarter that closed last week, his campaign announced Wednesday, setting a record for donations under Colorado’s current campaign finance laws. [Pols emphasis]

The former CU Law School dean and one-time Obama administration official said he plans to report more in contributions in a quarter than any other attorney general candidate has in a non-election year since the imposition of strict campaign finance limits on state races more than a decade ago…

…The highest reported quarterly haul by an attorney general candidate in a previous off year was the $69,394 raised by incumbent Republican Attorney General John Suthers in the second quarter of 2005. (Suthers had been appointed to the seat at the beginning of the year after its previous occupant, Democrat Ken Salazar, won a race for the U.S. Senate.)

We’ve written plenty of times in this space about the importance of early fundraising in shaping the perceptions of campaigns. Fundraising isn’t just about money; it is a good way to gauge the potential level of support for a campaign, particularly when the candidate is not well-known to the general voting public.

We don’t know how much money any of the other Democratic candidates for Attorney General raised in Q2, though it will be difficult to compare totals — to some degree — because none of the other Democrats had a full quarter in which to raise money (Joe Salazar, for example, couldn’t really raise money in earnest until after the legislative session ended in May). Weiser’s campaign has obviously thought about this, because they took pains in their announcement to note that Weiser didn’t formally declare for AG until May 11 (though we would presume Weiser had already paved the road for many of those checks).

Regardless of comparisons, Weiser’s impressive fundraising numbers are good news for Colorado Democrats in general.