June 07, 2010 06:08 PM UTC

Last Call for Ritter Refunds

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• by: Colorado Pols

Reports the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby:

Coloradans who donated to Gov. Bill Ritter’s now-defunct re-election campaign have until today to request a refund.

Those who don’t will see their money go to other causes, which may or may not have anything to do with political campaigns.

When Ritter changed his mind in January about seeking another four years in office, the one-term governor’s re-election campaign had nearly $1 million in its coffers.

Since then, he has returned $210,772…

You’ll recall that withdrawn gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry also pledged to return campaign contributions. Ashby circles back with Penry on his experience with that, and the relative numbers would seem to indicate a rather undeniable enthusiasm gap:

Of the 868 people who have asked for a refund so far, 124 have given that money and a bit more to his replacement in the race: Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.

A computer database created by the Daily Sentinel comparing Ritter’s refunds with Hickenlooper’s contributions revealed that those 124 got $66,859 back from the governor, but gave $84,205 to the mayor… [Pols emphasis]

…[U]nlike the Ritter refunds, only a small fraction of the $59,331 Penry gave back found its way into the coffers of his former opponents in the GOP primary, according to a similar computer database created by the Sentinel.

Of the 234 people Penry refunded, seven contributed to Scott McInnis and none to Dan Maes, the two leading candidates in the race. In most cases, those seven gave less to McInnis than they received in refunds, though one gave a bit more. As a result, McInnis earned a net increase of $358 from those Penry supporters. [Pols emphasis]

There’s no question that the campaigns of both Scott McInnis and John Hickenlooper combed back through the lists of donors to Penry and Ritter respectively after their withdrawals from the race–each of these donors got a direct ask from surviving campaigns to put those returned contributions back into the fight. Hickenlooper’s campaign takes credit for this in today’s story, and if McInnis’ campaign didn’t make a similar effort they are rank amateurs who should all be fired.

The show of enduring support those donors made, or in the case of McInnis, chose not to make, matters a great deal more to this race than the money itself.