Where the money bags won, and lost, in the Colorado state primary | NOONAN | Opinion

Money bags don’t always win. Money bags wanted to defeat Democrats they deem “too lefty.” Their storyline only worked some of the time. Here are the results:

State Board of Education candidate Kathy Gebhardt survived the most intense barrage from money spent for her opponent, Marisol Rodriguez. Gebhardt is a former Boulder Valley school board president. Before that, she guided the case that equalized state capital funding for school facilities embodied in BEST funds. Rodriguez worked for a variety of charter school entities and currently has a charter school consulting firm. Maybe this race will give her business a boost?

The ironically or facetiously named Progressives for Students and Teachers, pick your adverb, run by Denver’s Noah Stout and the Colorado League of Charter Schools’ Kyle DeBeer, overplayed their hand by collecting and spending more than a million dollars from undeclared donors to defeat Gebhardt. So, apparently, did Gov. Jared Polis, overplay his largess by warmly supporting Rodriguez and stiffing Gebhardt who helped him launch his full-day kindergarten program through BEST funding.

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Gebhardt won because of her pro-public school financing reputation, her fairness and discernment in the charter school arena and her longtime experience working for Boulder schools and supporting the values of the public in public education. The League of Charter Schools still carries lots of weight at the legislature, because money will always talk at the Capitol, but Gebhardt’s win should give pro-public school legislators and candidates a much-needed boost.

Second on the firing line was Rep. Mike Weissman from Aurora running for a state Senate seat after his eight years in the Colorado House. Weissman is respected as a thoughtful legislator well-versed on issues in many areas, including campaign finance and lobbying, criminal justice and civil law. His voting record is well within the Democratic mainstream, with only 11 no votes in the 2024 session on bills that made it to a final reading. Speaker Julie McCluskie had seven no votes and Rep. Bob Marshall from Douglas County had 56.

Weissman defeated Aurora school board member Idris Keith handily. Keith was bountifully funded by the unnamed donors of the Representation Matters campaign committee. To be fair, Weissman had money from unions behind him. That was not unexpected and is clearly denoted. But that money was substantially less than the approximately $500,000, maybe more, poured into Idris Keith’s campaign, with daily large donation reports in the last five days of the campaign.

Weissman raised $137,000 for his campaign to Keith’s $70,000. Both amounts are formidable for a state Senate seat. But Weissman came out on top, overcoming the cannon fire, because he has consistently listened to and worked for his constituents. That effort paid off for him.

So where did money win? In the Democratic primaries, anti-progressive money had the most influence defeating candidates without longtime, well-established political reputations. As an example, Tim Hernandez from Denver’s HD-4 was appointed to the legislature and worked there for a year. He gained some fame when he was terminated from his Denver Public Schools job at North High and his students organized rallies to support him. That started his political career as a shaker. He took on the Palestinian cause in Gaza. That was another flashing light warning the political class he was more than they wanted to deal with.

Cecelia Espenoza, a respected lawyer and judge, decided to run. She has her own well-developed reputation in the district. In this case, money backed a person with serious credentials, and she won.

Elisabeth Epps in HD-6 came into the legislature with a reputation as a lefty unafraid of making waves. And she did. She ran the unsuccessful bills banning semi-automatic weapons, challenged House leadership’s use of semi-covert methods for prioritizing bills, and took the Palestinian cause right into the Capitol. She rubbed her fellow Democrats the wrong way and they replied by rubbing her right out of the Capitol.

Epps’s opponent, Sean Camacho, is a very different type of candidate from Epps. He went to the Air Force Academy, served in intelligence, became a lawyer and is raising his family in Lowry. Hard to say at this point how he’ll develop as a legislator, but it’s safe to say he won’t run a protest for Palestinians in the upper gallery of the House.

Money bags defeated Kyra deGruy Kennedy who lost to Lakewood city council member Rebekah Stewart. A flamethrower deGruy Kennedy is not, but she did lobby for Young Invincibles on progressive causes. She was attempting to win the seat vacated by her spouse, Chris deGruy Kennedy. For unstated reasons, money bags picked Stewart, showered money on door-knockers and mail-in support of the city councilwoman, and she won.

What’s unfortunate for Stewart is the money came her way from donors unknown to voters. Maybe they’re unknown to her as well. The same campaign committee, A Whole Lot of People for Change, put down thousands to elect House Reps. Judy Amabile and Lindsey Dougherty for state Senate. In an innocuous description, A Whole Lot of People for Change and their independent expenditure committee One Main Street Colorado stated they wanted legislators who will support infrastructure and the middle class.

We’ll spend the next two years learning exactly what that means from people whom we may know but will never know we know.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.