This story was updated at 11 a.m on June 19 to include additional expenditures reported to the Secretary of State.
Campaigns seeking to elect candidates from Boulder County to statewide offices have funneled over $1.5 million into mailers, advertisements, phone calls and various electioneering activities ahead of this year’s Democratic primary.
The June 25 Democratic primary will decide who wins seats at the state Capitol and the State Board of Education. Republicans are running for some of these seats, but the districts up for election strongly favor Democrats.
The race for the state Board of Education has drawn more campaign spending than any other race on Boulder voters’ primary ballot. The nine-member board makes rules governing the Colorado Department of Education and can influence the creation of charter schools.
The candidates seeking the open seat are Marisol Rodriguez, a Gunbarrel resident who owns an education consulting firm, and Kathy Gebhardt, a South Boulder resident and former president of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education.
Progressives Supporting Teachers and Students, a state-level independent expenditure committee, has spent about $820,000 on advertisements, mailers and phone calls supporting Rodriguez and opposing Gebhardt, according to an analysis of campaign finance reports by Boulder Reporting Lab. The group’s largest donor is the Colorado League of Charter Schools.
One factor driving the influx of money is the potential shift in the balance of power on the state Board of Education, potentially making the board less supportive of charter school initiatives, according to recent reporting from the Colorado Sun.
Gebhardt, a lawyer, was elected to the BVSD Board of Education in 2015 and served until 2023. In 2019, she supported the school board’s decision to deny an application for a charter school, Ascent Classical Academy Flatirons. Board members who opposed the application said they were concerned that the school’s proposed anti-discrimination policy did not include references to gender identity, among other reasons. The state board later upheld the local board’s decision.
“I believe that when you look at their schools, they are not serving at-risk students,” Gebhardt said during the school board meeting in reference to Ascent Classical Academy Flatirons. “I don’t believe we can open up a school that can’t help us close our achievement gap and address the needs of our highest-needs population when they have not demonstrated an ability to do that.”
While Rodriguez’s firm, Insignia Partners, has worked with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, she told Boulder Weekly that she has a history of holding charter schools accountable and that “no one is buying me in this election.”
Separately, races for three seats in the state legislature have drawn about $600,000 in total spending, according to an analysis of campaign finance reports.
Read: Meet the 2024 Boulder County Democratic primary candidates running for state legislature
The race for House District 10, which includes much of the City of Boulder east of Broadway, is between incumbent Rep. Junie Joseph, a family lawyer and former member of the Boulder City Council, and Tina Mueh, a retired middle school science teacher and former president of the local teachers’ union, the Boulder Valley Education Association. Joseph’s campaign has spent about $145,000, more than twice as much as Mueh, who has spent about $55,000.
The race for Senate District 18, which includes the City of Boulder as well as Superior, Gunbarrel and Niwot, is between state Rep. Judy Amabile, who has served in the Colorado House since 2019, and Jovita Schiffer, an independent education consultant. Amabile has spent about $132,000, far more than the $24,000 spent by Schiffer.
Several independent expenditure committees are weighing into these races, too.
A Whole Lot of People for Change was created to back “pragmatic candidates” who support “rebuilding Colorado’s middle class and strengthening our local economy,” according to records with the Colorado Secretary of State. The committee has spent about $80,000 on mailers, advertisements and phone calls to support Amabile. Better Schools for a Stronger Economy, which seeks to elect pro-education reform candidates, spent $61,000 to support Amabile.
Separately, the Colorado Working Families Party, a chapter of the national progressive political party, spent about $9,000 buying mailers and digital advertisements to support Joseph. The party spent the same amount to support Schiffer.
The race with the least campaign spending is House District 49, encompassing parts of Boulder, Larimer and Gilpin counties. The two Democratic candidates for the seat are Lesley Smith, an at-large University of Colorado regent, who has spent $51,000, and Max Woodfin, a mental health counselor, who has spent about $21,000. No independent expenditure committees appear to be spending any significant amount to support or oppose either candidate.
Voters can drop off their ballots at designated ballot boxes until 7 p.m. on Election Day. For more about the candidates running for the state legislature, see Boulder Reporting Lab’s election coverage and our candidate questionnaires.
