Next year, the occupant of Colorado’s Governor’s mansion will be changing, when current Governor John Hickenlooper leaves the office due to term limits. There’s no shortage of candidates vying to replace Hickenlooper, but according to 2nd quarter campaign finance reports, some of them may face a shortage of cash.
The current fundraising totals that were submitted to the Secretary of State’s office earlier this week show that less than half of the current candidates are bothering to raise much money for their warchests, ahead of what is certain to be a hard-fought battle for the state’s top political office.
Leaving out the $3 million loan that Republican Victor Mitchell put into his own campaign, the candidate who has done the best so far with actual fundraising is Democrat Michael Johnston, a former state senator from Denver. Johnston brought in just over $300,000 in the 2nd quarter, but even that effort couldn’t match his 1st quarter when he brought in a whopping $632,000.
On the Republican side, Doug Robinson, who is a nephew of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, raised the most with a total of $207,000.
Aside from a few candidates who pulled in lower 6-figure totals, many of the remaining candidates only reported contributions of less than $15,000 each.