This is it, folks. The last fundraising numbers we’re going to see before we see the actual, verifiable results from all that fundraising. Fortunately for some candidates and unfortunately for others, things haven’t changed too much since the last time we talked about fundraising in this space. We said then that the lines in the sand had been drawn, and indeed, fundraising numbers have more or less held steady.
Chris Romer
As you’ll recall, Romer announced that he’s raised over $1,000,000 since the start of the campaign, hauling in about $282,000 this month alone. He’s got just about $500,000 on hand. It’s a huge development that you’ve got a candidate with that kind of fundraising in this kind of race. He’s almost raised double what some of his closest competitors have, and he’s easily spent more than a lot of the other candidates have raised. Make no mistake, these numbers all help to ensure that Romer will make it through to the run-off election. If he doesn’t, that will be a game-changing campaign shocker in an otherwise milquetoast race. We know Romer’s on TV and we can assume he’s gearing up for mail. What will really make or break Romer is how hard he and his team are hitting the streets. We have our own doubts about his doorstep manner, but even if he were terrible in walk and knocks, he’s raised enough to give him a huge buffer above the others. Oh yeah, some Democrats recognize his dad for some reason or another. That can’t hurt.
Carol Boigon
Boigon had another good month, raising about $150,000 with $232,000 on hand. As our readers pointed out below, Boigon actually only raised about $50,000, investing another $100,000 of her own money in the campaign. What this says about her fundraising is that she has indeed picked all the low-hanging fruit she can, but she is at least able to self-finance. Funding your own campaign is a bad way to show you can relate to voters and gives the impression of “buying your way into public office,” but it probably won’t hurt that much in this race given the minimal coverage from the media. It worked for Jared Polis, after all, and we think it may be able to work for Carol if she can prove she’s competitive. Unlike Romer, most analysts don’t seem to think that she’s guaranteed to make it through to the run-off. We agree. But Carol’s fundraising and ability to self finance is good enough that she can target her more direct competitors. What will be difficult for the councilwoman to figure out is how to raise money if she ends up running against Chris and only Chris: she won’t be able to capitalize on that doomed City Council vote, and a lot of her low-hanging fruit has been picked. Regardless, Carol’s got a big enough wallet to have thrown herself $200,000 so far. If she makes it to the run-off, we’re pretty sure she can loan herself even more.
Michael Hancock
Hancock has really solidified his fundraising lately, and it’s already showing. Though he raised just under $140,000 this month, he’s raised more in total than Carol Boigon and now has about $140,000 on hand. We’re surprised. We perceive Boigon as a better fundraiser than Hancock, but he’s certainly got the numbers to prove us wrong. He hasn’t had to invest incredible amounts of his personal funds into the campaign, either. We know he’s spending his money, too: his campaign produced what we think has been the best TV ad in the race thus far and we know he’s preparing himself for a massive field push before ballots start to get returned. His ill-advised vote on pay increases will flesh itself out in the coming days, but Hancock has positioned himself well financially to give it his all…so long as he has managed his burn rate better. In February Hancock spent about as much as he raised, which is a killer when you need every last dollar for TV.
