$3.43
That's your cut of Denver's campaign money.
Every year, Denver sets aside $3.43 for every Denverite and puts it into the Fair Elections Fund, the public money that helps pay for city campaigns.
In 2023, its first election, the fund wrote checks for $7.7 million. Because every campaign dollar is a public record, we can follow all of it.
Follow the moneyOne fund. 47 campaigns.
The Fair Elections Fund matches small donations 9 to 1 for candidates who agree to lower contribution limits and no corporate money. A $50 gift from a neighbor becomes $500. In 2023 the fund paid $7,695,471.92 to 47 campaigns across four city races.
13 mayoral campaigns, 32 council campaigns across the 13 seats, and one campaign each for auditor and clerk. The council number matters most here: it's the office this campaign is running for.
What that money buys.
If, like us, you haven't seen $12,787,305.23 in person lately, here it is in Denver units:
Now let's look at the campaign spending as squares, each one representing $128,000 of Denver money.
All the money the 47 fund-backed campaigns spent. Each square is about $128,000 of it.
$12,787,305.23
That's what the 47 campaigns spent over the full cycle. Public match and private donations land in the same checking account, so no single square has a name on it. But every check is a public record.
We read all 8,092 of them.
What it bought
Consultants, staff and canvassers, ads in every format, and 25 checks for pizza. We sorted every purpose line a campaign wrote on a check into 18 buckets. The red squares are paper.
$2,164,427.61
16.9 percent of everything they spent became mailers, palm cards, and door hangers.
Direct mail alone was $1,796,878.50. More on that below.
$1,753,447.04
Digital ads took 13.7 percent. Facebook, Google, Instagram, streaming. Most of it was booked through agencies. The biggest tech companies did well for themselves.
$5,175,225.74
40.5 percent of every dollar was paid to vendors outside Colorado. The checks landed in Washington DC, California, Florida, Virginia, Connecticut, Tennessee.
The hatching marks money that left the state.
The mail.
The single biggest thing Denver's 2023 council campaigns bought was mail.
Council campaigns spent $1,485,861.43 on direct mail, more than they spent on consultants, and more than double what they spent on digital ads. Council campaigns put $5,271,750.16 into the 2023 races in all, and public money covered 69.6 percent of it. The fund can't be traced to any single mailer. It doesn't need to be. It was the biggest money in the room.
- Designed by a consultant, often in another state
- Printed and mailed. 60% of all mail money went to out-of-state firms
- Lands in your mailbox next to the oil-change coupons
- Trash/recycling/never the front of someone's fridge
The two-minute version
The council campaigns that bought the most mail
| Candidate | Race | Direct mail | Share of their spending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarah Parady | At-Large | $129,386.68 | 32% |
| Darrell Watson | District 9 | $112,999.26 | 35% |
| Tim Hoffman | At-Large | $96,537.49 | 30% |
| Travis Leiker | At-Large | $94,262.18 | 23% |
| Brad Revare | District 8 | $80,093.02 | 31% |
| Chris Hinds | District 10 | $80,067.04 | 31% |
| Marty Zimmerman | At-Large | $76,852.60 | 39% |
| Noah Kaplan | District 10 | $72,003.27 | 49% |
These are public campaign finance records, not a scandal. Mail is what the playbook says to buy.
Where the paper money went
| Vendor | State | Mail + print total |
|---|---|---|
| Kabza LLC | Colorado | $554,425.24 |
| Superior Blue | Virginia | $214,254.95 |
| Mission Control | Connecticut | $171,788.99 |
| Renaissance Campaign Strategies | Florida | $160,070.00 |
| Do Big Things | California | $129,365.42 |
| Dover Strategy Group | Florida | $82,083.02 |
| Baseline | Washington DC | $77,868.40 |
| Strategies 360, Inc. | Colorado | $70,229.79 |
The money that left.
Add up every check to a vendor with an out-of-state address and you get $5,175,225.74. That is 40.5 percent of everything the 47 campaigns spent.
Washington DC firms alone billed Denver campaigns $1,707,148.94.
"State" is where the firm that cashed the check sits. A DC firm can subcontract a Denver printer, and a Denver firm can print in Ohio. What the ledger proves is who got paid.
What we'll buy instead.
This campaign runs on the same fund, and here's the plan for it: zero direct mail, zero paid ads. In 2023, 31 of the 32 fund-backed council campaigns bought mail, $47,931 of it on average. That money, in this campaign, goes to Denver neighborhoods instead, on camera, with the receipt posted the same week.
All 18 buckets.
For the wonks: every check, classified by what the campaign said it was for. The hatched end of each bar is the share paid to out-of-state vendors.
Paid to vendors outside Colorado
"Advertising (unspecified)" is ads where the filing says no more than "ads." The classification method, and what it can't tell you, is in the fine print.
Every check. Go ahead, look.
All 8,092 expenditures the 47 fund-backed campaigns filed, searchable. Type a candidate, a vendor, a word like "pizza" or "polling."
Loading the checks…
| Date | Campaign | Paid to | For | Bucket | Amount |
|---|
All 47 campaigns.
What each fund-backed campaign received and what it spent.
| Candidate | Race | Fund money | Total spent | Direct mail | Out-of-state share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Johnston | Mayor | $766,923.75 | $2,019,644.23 | $882.00 | 71% |
| Kelly Brough | Mayor | $937,500.00 | $2,017,519.04 | $199.71 | 15% |
| Leslie Herod | Mayor | $587,057.13 | $932,775.10 | $161,109.97 | 47% |
| Chris Hansen | Mayor | $375,187.50 | $614,301.26 | $94.50 | 74% |
| Travis Leiker | Council At-Large | $250,000.00 | $411,243.27 | $94,262.18 | 49% |
| Debbie Ortega | Mayor | $249,705.00 | $404,699.52 | $120.63 | 29% |
| Sarah Parady | Council At-Large | $250,000.00 | $401,773.36 | $129,386.68 | 44% |
| Darrell Watson | Council D9 | $156,250.00 | $326,282.91 | $112,999.26 | 4% |
| Tim Hoffman | Council At-Large | $222,363.00 | $317,925.00 | $96,537.49 | 34% |
| Serena Gonzales Gutierrez | Council At-Large | $220,652.64 | $294,246.94 | $68,229.79 | 36% |
| Kwame Spearman | Mayor | $188,406.45 | $289,497.70 | $0.00 | 57% |
| Lisa Calderon | Mayor | $195,351.03 | $275,013.79 | $54,071.32 | 47% |
| Brad Revare | Council D8 | $156,250.00 | $259,286.66 | $80,093.02 | 58% |
| Chris Hinds | Council D10 | $156,250.00 | $256,342.43 | $80,067.04 | 24% |
| Candi L. CdeBaca | Council D9 | $156,250.00 | $244,172.25 | $44,212.20 | 37% |
| Kevin Flynn | Council D2 | $125,000.00 | $205,662.23 | $45,947.66 | 2% |
| Ean Tafoya | Mayor | $153,713.07 | $204,594.12 | $453.10 | 7% |
| Marty Zimmerman | Council At-Large | $151,803.00 | $198,786.22 | $76,852.60 | 75% |
| Shannon Hoffman | Council D10 | $142,684.99 | $192,960.21 | $39,208.91 | 42% |
| Flor Alvidrez | Council D7 | $134,308.69 | $181,074.61 | $50,530.19 | 14% |
| Trinidad Rodriguez | Mayor | $120,243.60 | $180,058.06 | $0.00 | 24% |
| Penfield Tate | Council At-Large | $114,390.00 | $170,649.76 | $50,000.00 | 39% |
| Shontel Lewis | Council D8 | $122,621.17 | $164,576.77 | $34,286.20 | 28% |
| Tony Pigford | Council D4 | $125,000.00 | $162,623.45 | $65,347.90 | 11% |
| Diana Romero Campbell | Council D4 | $125,000.00 | $160,342.65 | $65,873.33 | 49% |
| Will Chan | Council At-Large | $120,689.91 | $149,724.28 | $52,220.10 | 56% |
| Noah Kaplan | Council D10 | $114,183.00 | $146,938.89 | $72,003.27 | 56% |
| Erik Clarke | Auditor | $109,125.18 | $145,314.89 | $65,977.55 | 45% |
| Thomas Wolf | Mayor | $105,329.43 | $127,194.70 | $0.00 | 63% |
| Paul Kashmann | Council D6 | $85,455.00 | $112,668.30 | $18,832.79 | 1% |
| Adam Estroff | Council D7 | $88,137.00 | $111,508.10 | $42,328.44 | 57% |
| Nick Campion | Council D7 | $89,170.31 | $107,779.00 | $37,550.67 | 51% |
| Terrance Roberts | Mayor | $73,908.18 | $101,094.44 | $108.29 | 25% |
| Tiffany Caudill | Council D2 | $67,464.00 | $93,551.20 | $12,620.08 | 67% |
| Amanda Pauline Sandoval | Council D1 | $76,185.00 | $82,797.39 | $10,726.49 | 25% |
| Michael Hughes | Council D5 | $56,889.00 | $78,741.00 | $52,503.03 | 28% |
| Paul D. López | Clerk and Recorder | $62,201.07 | $76,049.42 | $28,000.00 | 3% |
| Leslie Twarogowski | Council D8 | $57,492.00 | $73,789.90 | $567.08 | 62% |
| Kwon Atlas | Council D9 | $49,680.00 | $66,537.10 | $4,970.88 | 38% |
| Jamie Torres | Council D3 | $62,415.00 | $66,486.63 | $7,693.77 | 19% |
| James Walsh | Mayor | $51,219.00 | $65,332.62 | $0.00 | 11% |
| Aurelio Martinez | Mayor | $50,984.82 | $62,466.18 | $0.00 | 4% |
| Stacie Gilmore | Council D11 | $52,560.00 | $57,632.50 | $0.00 | 3% |
| Margie Morris | Council D10 | $41,832.00 | $55,853.14 | $18,755.03 | 48% |
| Guy Padgett | Council D7 | $36,855.00 | $53,766.22 | $12,160.98 | 30% |
| Tyler Drum | Council D8 | $27,342.00 | $33,066.00 | $2,228.50 | 10% |
| Chris Herr | Council D2 | $33,444.00 | $32,961.79 | $6,865.87 | 8% |
The fine print.
Every number on this page comes from Denver's own campaign finance system, and every step between their database and this page is reproducible.
Source
All records were pulled on July 31, 2026 from the public API behind SearchLight Denver, the Clerk and Recorder's campaign finance portal: 8,092 expenditure records and every Fair Elections Fund payment for the 2023 Municipal General Election cycle, which covers committee activity from 2020 through 2023. The raw records behind this page are published at /data/fef2023-records.json so you can check our work.
Your $3.43
Denver's charter funds the Fair Elections Fund at $2.88 per resident per year, adjusted for inflation every four years. The Clerk's office set the current figure at $3.43 in early 2024. During the 2023 election the rate was still $2.88. Details on the Clerk's Fair Elections Fund page.
Who's counted
The 47 candidate committees that received Fair Elections Fund payments in the 2023 cycle. Their spending totals $12,787,305.23, of which the fund's $7,695,471.92 is 60.2 percent. Independent expenditure committees are excluded everywhere on this page: the fund cannot pay them, and they answer to no candidate.
What "became paper" means, exactly
Public money and private donations sit in the same campaign bank account, so no specific mailer can be traced to a specific fund dollar. This page never claims otherwise. It shows two facts side by side: what the campaigns spent their money on, and how much of their money was public. Both come straight from the filings.
The buckets
Denver's filings have no spending categories, just a free-text purpose field. We classified all 8,092 records by that text (and, where the purpose says only "ads," by the vendor's name). Bucket totals are honest approximations, good to within a few percent; totals for the fund itself and per-campaign spending are exact to the cent. "State" reflects the payee address on the filing, which is the invoicing firm, not necessarily where the work happened. Chart labels round to the dollar; the tables and the downloadable records keep the cents. The classifier and pull scripts are in the campaign's public repository.
The weekly receipt
One email a week: what came in, what went out, what got fixed, nothing else.