DENVER (KDVR) — Denver’s Fair Election Fund has evened out the playing field in some ways and deepened candidate leads in others.
Denver’s mayoral race now has well over two dozen candidates vying for the impending vacancy of Mayor Michael Hancock.
The city’s Fair Elections Fund, which matches the contributions to candidates, has helped bring the total candidate contributions to $5 million as of Feb. 23.
The candidates have brought in an almost identical amount from contributions and from Fair Elections Funds.
Candidates have brought in $2.36 million from monetary, loan and in-kind contributions. From the Fair Elections Fund, they have brought in $2.3 million in fair elections payments. Another $187,571 came from independent expenditures.
The Fair Elections Fund has had a mixed impact on funding. It’s given some less-moneyed candidates several times more than they had raised on their own. However, it has also doubled the funding of candidates who already had the most.
The five candidates who raised the most in campaign contributions are also the candidates who have the most after their Fair Elections Funds disbursements. This does not include candidate Andre Rougeot, who opted out of Fair Elections Funds.
Former Denver Chamber of Commerce president Kelly Brough has the most total money, with $1.2 million overall. She also has the most in campaign contributions. Leslie Herod, Mike Johnston, Chris Hansen and Deborah Ortega each follow the same pattern, with both the most campaign contributions and the most overall funding.
For the less well-moneyed, the fund did pull some candidates ahead of others who had raised more campaign contributions.