The Center for Public Integrity just released its final study of the breakdown for political ads in Colorado for the 2014 election cycle. Senator-elect Cory Gardner was outspent by Sen. Mark Udall by over $3 million ($5.2M to $8.5M), and had nearly 6,000 less ads than Udall (8,793 to 14,700). Then again, if you have nothing really to run on, best run as many ads as possible, right? Surely, if Coloradans weren’t offended by a single-issue campaign after the first 10,000 ads, another 4,700 should do it. Right, Udall?
Which really gets Democrats goat about the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United, isn’t so much that it allows more outside money into campaigns, but that it allow Republicans to finally close the cash advantage Democrats have long had through Big Labor and public unions. Even with Citizens United in place, Democrats and liberal-leaning groups still outspent Gardner and his backers by nearly $3 million ($25M- $22.3M).
Colorado ranked #3 overall when it came to gross spending, trailing North Carolina and Georgia, but fell to #5 when adjusted to money spent per voter. At $13 per eligible voter, Colorado trailed Iowa, Alaska, New Hampshire, and Arkansas.
When it came to ballot initiatives, The Denver Post reports nearly $21.3 million was spent on their behalves. While another $13.3 million was spent on state-level races. Altogether, roughly $82 million was spent on ads for just ballot initiatives, state-level races, and the Senatorial race.
Which means, Kyle Clark should be more than able to suffer through an avalanche of snow-patio pictures this year, seeing how our eyeballs have essentially built him another beer cellar.