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The biggest election 2022 spender in Colorado? Jared Polis — by a long shot.

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Democratic Gov. Jared Polis spent $12.6 million of his own money on his successful reelection bid this year, more than any other state-level candidate or group in Colorado required to make 2022 campaign finance disclosures. 

That’s according to final state-level 2022 campaign finance reports due Tuesday. The data doesn’t include money spent by political nonprofits, which don’t have to report their finances to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office or the public, and are referred to by The Colorado Sun as dark-money groups.

Polis’ 2022 spending, however, didn’t come close to the more than $23 million of his own cash spent in 2018 to win his first gubernatorial campaign. 

The No. 2 state-level political spender in Colorado this year was Total Wine & More at $12 million. The money went toward supporting Proposition 124, an unsuccessful ballot measure that would have let the retail giant open more stores in Colorado.

Democratic super PACs outspent their GOP counterparts on state-level races, as did Democratic candidates — for the most part.

Here is what you need to know about how the final campaign finance numbers in Colorado this year.

Democratic candidates dominate spending on state-level statewide contests

Polis spent a total of $13.2 million on his reelection, more than three times the $3.7 million spent by his Republican opponent, University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl, who lost by more than 19 percentage points.

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Polis spent $9 per vote cast in his favor in the general election, less than the $9.72 per vote he spent in the 2018 general election and far less than the nearly $40 per vote he spent winning a four-way primary that year.

By comparison, Ganahl spent $3.77 per vote cast in her favor, which was the second-highest amount by a candidate for state-level statewide office. She put more than $2 million of her own money into her campaign.

In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet spent $16 per vote to win reelection over Republican Joe O’Dea, who spent $9 per vote.

Three other Democrats who ran for state-level statewide office also significantly outspent their Republican opponents to win reelection Nov. 8.

Attorney General Phil Weiser and Secretary of State Jena Griswold spent more than 10 times per vote than their Republican opponents, 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner and former Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson. Treasurer Dave Young spent 50 cents per vote compared with the 21 cents spent per vote by Republican Lang Sias, a former state representative.

Democrats also got more help from state-level super PACs than their Republican opponents, with Strong Colorado for All, a Democratic group, spending $7.3 million in the governor’s contest, mostly opposing Ganahl. 

Republican super PAC Deep Colorado Wells spent $3.3 million in the gubernatorial and attorney general races. That PAC was operated by Weld County rancher and oil and gas booster Steve Wells, who gave the group $11 million. But he took back $7 million of that, stopping his spending about a month before Election Day when he said it became clear Ganahl couldn’t win.

The Democratic Attorneys General Association’s state super PAC spent $2.9 million supporting Weiser and opposing Kellner. The conservative super PAC Defend Colorado spent $1.8 million supporting Kellner and Anderson while opposing Griswold and Weiser. And Defend Democracy Fund, a Democratic political action committee, spent $1.5 million supporting Griswold and opposing Anderson.

Super PACs and Democratic candidates led spending in legislative contests

Democratic candidates outspent their Republican counterparts in four of the seven comPetitive state Senate contests and in four of the five House districts that flipped from Republican to Democratic.

In the costliest state Senate contest, Jefferson County-based Senate District 20, Republican developer Tim Walsh loaned his campaign more than $1 million and spent about $1.2 million in his loss to Democratic state Rep. Lisa Cutter. She spent $262,000.

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