In 2004, they were known as the Gang of Four. Wealthy Democrats, including Pat Stryker, Rutt Bridges, Tim Gill, and now-Gov. Jared Polis, who pooled their resources for a take-over of the Colorado General Assembly.
As outlined in “The Blueprint,” the landmark book on what began Colorado’s transition from red to blue, in 2004, the GOP held the governor’s seat, both chambers of the General Assembly, five of seven congressional seats, and the treasurer and secretary of state’s office.
In just four short years, Democrats took nearly everything, including both chambers of the General Assembly. Since 2008, Democrats have held those majorities in the Senate for all but four years (2015 to 2018) and two years in the House (2011-12).
Of the four, only Polis has contributed to Colorado candidates in this election cycle and continues to contribute at the federal level. Stryker has remained active this year only at the federal level.
Colorado Politics examined the top dozen Coloradans (and a few who aren’t) who are funding political campaigns, whether it’s a ballot measure to put abortion into the state constitution, set up ranked-choice voting, or put big money into the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.
All data for this report came either from TRACER, the Colorado Secretary of State’s campaign finance database, or campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission.
The big Colorado spender in the 2023-24 election cycle? It should be no surprise: Kent Thiry, the former CEO of DaVita.
Kent Thiry
Thiry’s money and efforts have impacted Colorado’s election processes more than any other individual. He put more than $3 million into the committee backing Proposition 108 in 2016, which allowed unaffiliated voters to vote in primaries. Two years later, he gave more than $1.2 million to two committees supporting a revamp of Colorado’s redistricting system under Amendments X and Y.
In 2020, he backed the effort to repeal the Gallagher Amendment with $2.5 million.
Thiry is the primary backer of Colorado Voters First this year, which would implement ranked choice voting in Colorado’s election process. The committee has given more than $2 million so far.
He did not stop there. Thiry also gave $1.24 million to Let Colorado Vote Action. This independent expenditure committee backed candidates from both parties for the state House and Senate, who faced far-left or far-right candidates. The effort paid off. Of the 12 candidates supported by the committee, nine won their primary races, and most are in safe seats, meaning they’re likely to win in the general election in November.
Thiry has spent $9.6 million in Colorado statewide campaigns since 2011.
Thiry is also active at the federal level. So far, he has contributed $554,000 to federal candidates and causes, with the largest contribution — $350,000 — to the Carey committee, Unite America PAC. (A Carey committee is a hybrid committee; it can give limited funds directly to candidates as well as make independent expenditures in unlimited amounts.)
Unite America intends to do nationwide what Thiry and his allies did or are doing in Colorado: to end partisan gerrymandering, open primary elections to all voters, and require candidates to win a majority of votes, aligned with the National Popular Vote movement.
Ben Walton, one of the grandsons of Walmart founder Sam Walton, has contributed to some of the same causes. He has put $250,000 into Colorado Voters First, his largest donation this year. He donated the same amount to the 2018 committee backing redistricting reform and $200,000 to the 2016 effort to open primary elections.
In the past decade, Walton has contributed $1.43 million to Colorado causes and candidates.
His brother, Sam, has also been generous in Colorado, contributing to Conservation Colorado over the years. Cousins Lukas and James Walton have also made small contributions to Democratic candidates in 2024, although S. Robson Walton, an uncle, is backing Sen. Cleave Simpson in Senate District 6 this year.
While Fort Collins-based Pat Stryker, whose fortune comes from the family medical devices business, hasn’t contributed to Colorado candidates or ballot measures so far in 2024, she hasn’t been shy about writing checks at the federal level.
Former state Sen. Mike Johnston and progressive activist Pat Stryker helped pass Amendment B on the 2020 ballot.
File photos
So far, she has contributed $4 million, including $1 million to the Harris campaign. Since 2014, she has contributed $24 million to Democratic federal candidates.
She is not the only million-dollar donor to Harris from Colorado.
Melony and Adam Lewis of Aspen, who own Canyon Echo Capital, have contributed more than $2 million to the Harris campaign out of more than $3 million in the 2023-24 election cycle. They have donated more than $6.5 million at the federal level over the past decade.
Their contributions in Colorado this year totaled less than $4,000, with several small donations to the campaign of Democratic Senate candidate Cole Brueger in Senate District 5 on the Western Slope. Total contributions in Colorado over the past decade total about $125,000.
Lynn and Stacy Schusterman, a mother and daughter duo from Tulsa, have been generous on the issue of reproductive choice. Their fortune comes from the deepwater drilling company Samson Energy. Lynn gave $500,000 to Coloradans for Reproductive Choice last December, her largest contribution ever.
Stacy Schusterman of Tulsa, of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation. Photo courtesy the foundation.
Marianne Goodland
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Although Stacy has not made any contributions in Colorado this year, she’s racked up $2.4 million in donations over the past decade, some of the most significant going to pro-abortion causes.
At the federal level, Stacy has made $10.3 million in contributions over the past 10 years, with $2.271 million so far in 2023-24. That includes $1 million to the Senate Majority Project and $100,000 to the House Majority Project. She has also contributed to U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, who is fighting to keep Democrats in control of Congressional District 8, which is being labeled as a vulnerable race in 2024.
Lynn’s federal contributions total $7.5 million over the past decade, including $2.6 million in 2023-24. She gave more than $1 million to Planned Parenthood Votes and contributed to Caraveo.
Merle Chambers of Denver is an attorney and philanthropist. From 1980 to 1997, she was the CEO of Axem Resources, a private oil and gas exploration and production company, and since 1997, she has been the president and CEO of Leith Ventures, a private investment firm.
Merle Chambers and Sally Leibbrandt. Luncheon By Design 2024 at the Denver Art Museum, Sturm Grand Pavilion in Denver, Colorado, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Photo StevePeterson.photo
Steve Peterson
And she is generous on the issue of reproductive choice and backing state House and Senate Democratic candidates.
She has already contributed $200,000 to Coloradans for Reproductive Choice and made almost four dozen individual contributions to Democratic candidates for the state House and Senate, most at the maximum level of $450—chambers’ total contributions at the state level total $2.1 million over the past decade.
She has made $1.7 million in contributions at the federal level this year, including to Caraveo and U.S. Rep. Brittany Petterson, D-Lakewood; and $127,000 to the Harris campaign.
Chambers has contributed more than $10 million in the past decade at the federal level.
The leaders among the million-dollar voters on the Republican side are Larry Mizel of MDC Holdings and Tatnall Hillman, a retired oil man.
Adrienne Singleton and Larry Mizel. Western Fantasy, benefiting Volunteers of America, at the National Western Events Center in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. Photo Steve Peterson
Steve Peterson
Mizel has already spent $1.85 million at the federal level in 2024. He has made more than 150 contributions so far this election cycle, including several contributions to former President Donald Trump-related committees.
However, his most significant donations, totaling $400,000, went to the United Democracy Project, which backs candidates of any party that supports U.S.-Israel relations.
Hillman, a reclusive resident of Aspen, has made more contributions at the federal level than any Coloradan. He has made over 3,000 contributions in the past decade, totaling more than $9 million. In 2023-24, he contributed $213,350 to Republican congressional candidates.
He has previously supported U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Windsor, but so far in 2024, he has not contributed to her 4th congressional district campaign.
Hillman spends little on Colorado causes, although he’s been a supporter of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners in the past.
Polis has spent more on Colorado campaigns, mostly his own, than any other donor in state history. In his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial campaigns, he spent $35.5 million from a fortune estimated at one time at $400 million that he accrued from several successful internet businesses, including ProFlower and bluemountainarts.com.
So, what has he done lately? So far in 2024, he has contributed to U.S. Reps’ campaigns. Joe Neguse, D-Lafayette and Caraveo. Before she was a presidential candidate, he also gave $16,000 to the Harris campaign, notably in December 2023. His total in 2023-24 is $39,200.
FEC records show that he contributed more than $582,000 in total during his time in the governor’s mansion and as a congressman.
In 2024, Polis donated $2,400 to Colorado state candidates, spread among three Boulder Democrats running for the House and Senate and three Democratic candidates who beat their far-left opponents in the June primary. All those contributions were made before the primary.
Then there’s former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg News.
Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, right, a former three-term mayor of New York City, announces his anti-gun violence agenda alongside state Sen. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial, on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019, at Heritage Christian Center in Aurora.
(Ernest Luning/Colorado Politics)
Last week, he gave Coloradans for Reproductive Choice $750,000, his first contribution in 2024.
But Bloomberg has been opening his wallet in Colorado for years. He has given more than $6 million to various Democratic candidates and causes in Colorado, most notably to gun safety organizations like Everytown.
At the federal level, Bloomberg has contributed over $377 million in the past decade, including $41.5 million this year. That includes $10,000 to the Colorado Democratic Party and $929,600 to the Harris campaign.
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Publish date : 2024-09-16 11:35:00
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