It just seems like bad taste for politicos to be bragging about how much money they raised in a quarter that coincides with a pandemic and thousands of folks getting sick and dying.
On the one hand, we were just glad to finally see a story that wasn’t about COVID-19.
But on the other hand — cringe.
U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner has been hustling during the pandemic to get masks, ventilators and other necessary medical supplies and equipment, and pushing to get millions of dollars into our healthcare system.
Our senator’s also been busy getting aid to ranchers, farmers and dairy farmers impacted by the economic slowdown, and pushing for more funding to help small businesses Gov. Polis forced to close.
Meanwhile, Hickenlooper was fundraising for himself, about $4.1 million this quarter.
True to Democrat form, Hickenlooper also spent most of his money and ended the quarter with only $4.9 million in the bank.
Not surprisingly, Gardner didn’t have much time for campaigning once the pandemic hit. His biggest fundraising success was pre-COVID-19 in Colorado when President Trump attended an event for him back in February.
Gardner’s total raised this quarter was $2.5 million, almost half of what Hickenlooper had time to raise.
Gardner has not been on a wild spending spree like Hickenlooper and still has $9.6 million in the bank.
Hickenlooper spent a huge chunk of money, more than $420,000 collecting petition signatures to get on the ballot.
Hickenlooper’s likely opponent in the Democratic primary, Andrew Romanoff, is going the route of the state party assembly on Saturday to secure a position on the Democratic primary ballot.