How much alcohol ballot measures cost, in Colorado context

Colorado's ballot measures to loosen alcohol sales may amount to an expensive bottle down the drain.

What to know: The campaigns behind Propositions 124, 125 and 126 raised a combined $27 million to convince voters to support them (some of it overlapping). It landed them among the 10 most expensive ballot fights in the nation this election, according to OpenSecrets, a campaign finance tracker.

Yes, but: Two of them — Proposition 124 to allow liquor store chains to have more licenses and Proposition 126 to allow more alcohol delivery options — lost decisively. Proposition 125 to allow wine sales in grocery stores is on the cusp of defeat but remains close.

By the numbers: Let's put this in terms we know better.

• You could have bought more than 4.6 million smothered burritos from Santiago's — one of our favorites — with that sum.
• Put another way: That's about 1.8 million bottles of $15 wine to drown their sorrows.