One of the costliest congressional primaries in Colorado history just keeps getting more and more spendy, according to second-quarter financial reports for the 2nd Congressional District race between Democrats Joan Fitz-Gerald, Jared Polis and Will Shafroth.
Polis, Internet entrepreneur and former head of the state school board, won the fund-raising race at $3.19 million (mostly in the form of contributions to his own campaign) and has outspent his opponents by a ratio of about 10-to-1, flooding the airwaves with TV commercials and mailboxes with glossy flyers. Polis has reportedly spent about $2.6 million so far, with less than a month to go before the Aug. 12 primary.
Fitz-Gerald, the former state Senate president and Jefferson County clerk, raised $422,590 in the second quarter, and Shafroth, a conservationist who used to head up Great Outdoors Colorado, raised a little more than $280,000.
So far the three candidates have raised nearly $7.7 million, with Polis accounting for nearly $5 million of that ($3.6 million from his own coffers). With no official polling data for the traditionally liberal district that includes Boulder, it