Zornio: Guess how much money has been spent in Colorado’s 2024 election so far. You won’t believe it.

There’s an old saying that money makes the world go ‘round. In Colorado politics, that’s clearly true.

But just how much money are we talking about this year? Let’s start with ballot measures.

Proposition 131 has brought in over $14 million and counting in support. When all is said and done, 131 will likely rank as the third or fourth most expensive ballot measure in the state in decades.  

Combined with remaining ballot issues, including Amendment 79 and Proposition 127 that touch on the topics of abortion and trophy hunting, over $44 million has been tallied to date as of last Monday for all of Colorado’s ballot measures in 2024. Of course, this doesn’t include any of the candidate fundraising.

So let’s take a peek at our candidates.

Setting aside the over $1 billion raised this year alone by Vice President Kamala Harris at the national level, Colorado has seen its fair share of high spenders, too. In the 8th Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat, spent $1.6 million in the most recent reporting period, holding onto $2.4 million in cash reserves. Her Republican opponent, state Rep. Gabe Evans, trailed her by almost double, spending “only” $732,000 with $363,000 left in the bank.

Yet the millions raised by Caraveo and Evans as candidates pale in comparison to the $23 million that has been spent by Super PACs weighing in on the race. Worse, the vast majority of these funds — $17 million — has been used for negative messaging, meaning voters are substantially more likely to see bought and paid for attack ads against a candidate than they are to see ads telling what a candidate would or would not do.

Do negative ads make the lives of Coloradans better?

In the 3rd Congressional District, a longtime Republican stronghold, Democrat Adam Frisch is poised to give a strong performance against his Republican opponent Jeff Hurd, spending roughly twice the amount in the last reporting period at $1.1 million. Super PACs have been involved in this race, too, although to a much lesser extent.

At the same time, the 4th Congressional District is seeing even more spending for Democrats after Rep. Lauren Boebert ran away from a losing race against Frisch to run in a new district. But abandoning her constituents isn’t panning out well, at least for funding, as she’s raised a paltry $80,000 in the same period that her opponent, Trisha Calverese, a Democrat, raised $573,000. 

Calverese also spent $1.6 million to Boebert’s $333,000 at the same time, leading some to question if the district might be up for grabs. One can only hope, but here again, the hefty price tag has mostly brought brutal negativity to Coloradans’ lives.

In combination, this amounts to tens of millions of dollars in candidate and Super PAC funds for only three of Colorado’s eight congressional districts. Then there are state and local races that easily add millions more, plus the $44 million-plus in ballot measure spending. 

There’s also however much money Coloradans gave toward national candidates or issues that could have otherwise been invested locally. So what is the cost in the end for one of Colorado’s election cycles? $100 million? $200 million? $500 million? More? Does anyone even really know when you factor in primary candidates, ballot signature collections and more? 

This has to stop. 

Over the past 10 years, Colorado’s seven most expensive ballot measures have racked up over $131 million, and that’s just the money we can publicly trace. It’s embarrassing. As a state, we see hundreds of millions of dollars flow through political agendas that largely spend money on negative advertising, all while the average Coloradan struggles with the cost of housing or putting healthy food on the table. It’s such a waste. Can you imagine what would happen if we put all that money toward actually helping Coloradans instead?

The numbers don’t lie. Let’s say the full cost of Colorado’s election cycle this year tops a conservative $100 million. That’s enough money to buy groceries for nearly 300,000 Coloradans for a month. It’s enough to pay $1,000 toward a month’s rent and utilities for 100,000 Coloradans. 

It’s enough to put toward building new tiny home communities, new bus lines or to help pay off the average Coloradan’s health care debt.

But nope. Instead we have a system where rich folks like Kent Thiry can spend millions of dollars on political advertising to buy votes for their personal political agendas instead of investing in real change to build Coloradans a better life. Why are we still letting this happen?

So what are we going to do about it, Colorado? Aren’t you tired of the millions of dollars of negative TV ads and flyers each election cycle? Don’t you want a better campaign system? Because if we really want change — and I think most of us do — getting deep pockets out of our politics ought to be agenda number one. Wouldn’t you agree?

So let’s do it. Let’s put our heads together and work to rein in election spending once and for all so we can finally put more money where it most belongs — back in the pockets of Coloradans.

Trish Zornio is a scientist, lecturer and writer who has worked at some of the nation’s top universities and hospitals. She’s an avid rock climber and was a 2020 candidate for the U.S. Senate in Colorado.

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