Fundraising gap grows

Ritter outdistancing Beauprez in war to fill war chests

Stuart Steers And Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 12, 2006 at midnight

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Congressman Bob Beauprez struggled Monday to overcome the latest bad news in his campaign for governor: his opponent, Democrat Bill Ritter, outearned the Republican by an almost 3-1 ratio in August.

Ritter collected $605,673 to Beauprez's $207,117.

To date, Ritter has raised $2.7 million to Beauprez's $2.3 million.

But since January, Ritter has raised almost twice as much as Beauprez.

With crucial fall TV ads now being bought, Ritter's financial lead will allow him to increase statewide advertising.

Beauprez has been hurt by a steady defection of moderate Republicans to Ritter's side. Ritter has scored support from dozens of Republican business executives who have been alienated by Beauprez.

In addition, recent missteps by Beauprez - including his claim that 70 percent of black pregnancies end in abortion and his selection of a running mate who compared gay marriage to bestiality - have created the impression of a bumbling campaign that constantly has to apologize for its statements.

"If you're making too many gaffes, people are reluctant to write checks to you," said John Straayer, who teaches political science at Colorado State University. "You almost get a sense the wheels are coming off the campaign."

A spokesman for Beauprez said Ritter is garnering support from special interests.

"Let's be clear about this: Bill Ritter has decided to place himself squarely in the hip pocket of the trial lawyers and the labor unions," John Marshall said. "You can't go through his fundraising reports and not come to the very strong conclusion that this is a guy who has basically placed a 'for sale' sign out in front of the state Capitol and said the trial lawyers and labor unions are going to have an open-door policy."

In August, Ritter, a former Denver district attorney, took in $101,661 from lawyers. He also collected $21,000 from small donor groups, most of them labor unions.

Ritter's wide lead in fundraising is unusual for a Democrat. He's been helped by anger felt by some moderate Republicans toward Beauprez, going back to his opposition to last fall's Referendum C.

"I'd say Beauprez's (August) number is shockingly low for the candidate, an incumbent congressman of what is still the majority party in this state," said political analyst Eric Sondermann. "Ritter is consolidating his position as the front-runner."

Most recent polls of Colorado voters have indicated that Ritter is ahead, and Sondermann said that makes it easier for Ritter to raise money. A Zogby/Wall Street Journal poll released Monday gave Ritter an 8.6 percentage-point lead over Beauprez.

Republicans who are supporting Ritter say they have been reassured by the candidate that he would be a moderate governor.

"There are a variety of things that drive people to Bill Ritter," said Don Kortz, a Republican businessman who is supporting Ritter. "I'm concerned about Beauprez's opposition to Ref C."

Kortz was an enthusiastic backer of Ref C, which allowed the cash- strapped state to spend millions of dollars of tax revenue that otherwise would have been returned to taxpayers. Many in the business community feared that without Ref C, the state would have made funding cuts for Colorado's colleges and roads, and that would have harmed the economy.

Republicans who donated to Ritter in August included developer John Madden, cable CEO Charles Lillis, Castle Pines Golf Club President Jack Vickers and venture capitalist Blair Richardson.

"The main donor base for the Republican Party is the corporate community, the business professional community, the local chambers of commerce, and they totally backed C and D," said political consultant Floyd Ciruli.

Their disappointment in Beauprez's opposition to Referendum C was only reinforced when he backed a failed ballot measure this year to refund a chunk of the surplus from the voter-approved measure.

"This is clearly an indicator that Beauprez is on the defensive and behind," Ciruli said of the fundraising numbers. "Can he still get this going? Absolutely. But final advertising and final get-out-the vote efforts are extremely important, and that takes substantial money."

In a meeting last week with the editorial board of the Rocky Mountain News, Beauprez predicted his fundraising would be "not quite the $600,000 that Bill raised."

Beauprez also said he was confident the campaign would raise enough money to stay competitive, noting that he expects help from the national party and the Trailhead Group, an independent committee that has been running ads attacking Ritter.

"We'll have to rely on our friends, hoping they're out there, the (Republican) Governors Association and whatever others - Trailhead or whoever wants to play. But will we have enough to do our media? Yes. And will we have enough to do our mail and our get-out-the-vote effort? Absolutely."

Women behind the bucks

This isn't the first time Bill Ritter's finance director, Shaylisa Hurte, and Bob Beauprez's finance director, Cinamon Watson, have faced off. Hurte ran fundraising for Ken Salazar's winning 2004 U.S. Senate campaign against Pete Coors, for whom Watson served as spokeswoman.

SHAYLISA HURTE

• Age: 27

• Title: Deputy campaign manager/finance director

• Experience: Deputy finance director, Joan Ruff for U.S. Senate (Kansas, January-March 2004); state finance director, Ken Salazar U.S. Senate campaign (July-November 2004)

CINAMON WATSON

• Age: 37

• Title: Finance director

• Experience: Colorado communications director for Dole-Kemp (1996) and Bush-Cheney (2000); Bill Owens for governor (2002); communications director, Pete Coors for U.S. Senate (2004)

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