Big money becomes big issue in Denver mayor's race
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Big-dollar donations are dominating the Denver mayor's race and reshaping the city council contests ahead of next week's runoff election.
By the numbers: Unlimited checks to independent super PACs topped $8 million and account for more than a quarter of all campaign donations in the 2023 election, an Axios Denver analysis of the latest reports finds.
Why it matters: Outside money now eclipses the $7.7 million sent to mayoral and council candidates from Denver's new public campaign financing system, undercutting the effort to remove big money from local elections.
Zoom in: The bulk of the high-dollar contributions are aimed at helping Mike Johnston win the mayor's race.
- Advancing Denver, the independent super PAC supporting Johnston, has raised $4.2 million total this election cycle, and accounts for 70% of money to get him elected.
- Three wealthy donors — Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former Davita CEO Kent Thiry — gave a combined $2.3 million to Advancing Denver.
- $1.1 million of that — including all of Bloomberg's money — landed in the runoff election alone, Axios Denver found.
The intrigue: The committee's latest spending went toward mailers attacking rival Kelly Brough for backing the oil and gas industry — dubbed "corporate polluters" — when she served as CEO of the Denver chamber.
The other side: A Better Denver, the super PAC supporting Brough that's funded by developers and real estate interests, has spent $1.4 million this election.
- In a campaign "alert" recently sent to Denver voters, Brough blasted Johnston for his ties to "coastal billionaires" — a reference to Hoffman and Bloomberg.
What they're saying: At a recent forum, Johnston said he has not committed anything to the donors for their support, and defended their spending.
- "Those are progressive donors, who support progressive candidates and progressive policies around the country," Johnston said. "… They are all people looking for leaders who they think can bring transformative change, who can build proof points for the rest of the country that we can take on really hard problems and solve them.
Reality check: The two biggest donors, Hoffman and Bloomberg, are education reform advocates — like Johnston — who don't align with progressives because they want to upend the traditional public school education system.
Zoom in: In the three outstanding city council races, outside money is splitting along political lines, mostly in opposition to a cohort of three progressive candidates, Candi CdeBaca, Shannon Hoffman and Shontel Lewis.
- Super PACs involved in the races have collected about $800,000 this election, often from dark-money sources that don't disclose donors.
- Outside spending accounts for 40% of the dollars in the District 9 races between CdeBaca, the incumbent, and challenger Darrell Watson.
Of note: Watson defended the spending supporting his campaign to defeat his rival. "Folks are tired of her divisive politics of the last four years and are supporting me," he told us.