Spending dipped in 2025 Boulder council race, with a few groups driving most of the campaign activity

Spending in Boulder’s 2025 city council race fell short of the previous two elections, according to the latest campaign finance reports released this month. Negative advertising also surfaced during the campaign and became a notable feature of the race.

Total spending was about $220,000, down from roughly $345,000 spent during Boulder’s 2023 election, the first year the city held a mayoral race. It was also lower than the more than $270,000 spent in 2021, when campaigns centered around ballot measures concerning occupancy limits and the CU South annexation.

This year’s election lacked a single defining issue, and some observers viewed it instead as a broader referendum on the council’s Boulder Progressives-backed majority. According to campaign emails and mailers, several groups concentrated their messaging on two incumbents — Lauren Folkerts and Nicole Speer — while supporting candidates who favored more enforcement of the city’s camping ban, supported cutting base wages for tipped workers and promoted what they described as more moderate policy approaches. Speer won reelection; Folkerts lost her seat to Rob Kaplan, a former captain with Boulder Rural Fire-Rescue. Incumbent Councilmembers Matt Benjamin and Mark Wallach also won reelection.

One of these groups, and one of the largest spenders in this year’s election, was Open Boulder, an unofficial candidate committee that spent more than $15,000, the most of any candidate committee. The organization supported Kaplan; Jenny Robins, chair of the Parks and Recreation Board; and Benjamin and Wallach.

Open Boulder said it sought to bring “policy balance” to the council, according to campaign emails. One email criticized Speer and Folkerts for opposing enforcement of the city’s camping ban when the shelter is at capacity and turning people away. The issue has drawn ongoing debate. Civil rights groups argue that ticketing homeless people when they have nowhere else to go violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

Open Boulder’s board includes former mayors Sam Weaver and Leslie Durgin, and former Councilmember Jan Burton. 

A separate group, Stop Antisemitism Colorado, spent about $6,000 on ads that included opposing Folkerts and implying she had tolerated antisemitism while serving on the city council, according to a text message sent to voters. One email following the election said it marked “a clear rejection of antisemitism and anti-Israel extremism in Boulder.” Folkerts was the only incumbent the organization urged voters not to support. It endorsed Benjamin, Kaplan, Robins, Speer and Wallach. 

In 2024, Folkerts supported considering a ceasefire resolution for the war in Gaza and in 2025 supported reconsidering the city’s investment policies for companies connected to Israel’s war efforts. Folkerts’ supporters have said she has not made any statements targeting Jewish people or expressing antisemitic views during her four years on the council. 

Another independent expenditure committee, New Era Colorado, a youth-focused civic engagement group co-founded by now-U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, and known for supporting more progressive candidates, spent nearly $7,000 supporting Speer, Folkerts and Rachel Rose Isaacson, a barista who also serves as a pollinator ambassador with Cool Boulder. The group said it helped flip the Aurora City Council majority from conservative to progressive in this year’s election, a contrast to its more limited impact in Boulder. In Boulder, New Era focused its messaging on housing affordability, higher wages and climate action.

The Boulder Progressives spent about $3,400 in their efforts to reelect their endorsed candidates, Benjamin, Folkerts and Speer. Sierra Club Indian Peaks spent about $1,300 on its endorsements of Benjamin, Folkerts and Speer.

Notably, the single biggest spender this cycle was the campaign to close West Pearl to cars, which put more than $27,000 into a ballot measure that never made it to the ballot, nearly twice as much as any other group. The effort was dropped months before the official campaign season began.

Such groups can play an important role in council elections, where relatively small numbers of votes can separate candidates. The candidates themselves often accept public matching funds that limit how much they can raise and spend on their own elections. All incumbents, along with Kaplan and Robbins, accepted public matching funds and spent about $24,000 each this year. There were 11 candidates seeking four open seats in the election.

This year’s voter turnout across Boulder County was 51%, according to the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder. It was as low as 13% in one precinct on University Hill, a student neighborhood, and above 60% in neighborhoods such as Chautauqua, Shanahan Ridge and Newlands.