With four weeks left until the November election, money is pouring into the toss-up race for Colorado’s Senate District 6.
Sen. Cleave Simpson, the Alamosa Republican incumbent, accepted the state’s voluntary spending limits and has raised just over the $141,975 cap.
He is staving off a challenge from Durango Democrat Vivian Smotherman, who is trying unseat the one-term senator in a race that could push statehouse Democrats over the 24-seat super majority threshold.
Smotherman has raised nearly $60,000 and lent her own campaign $12,600.
With $89,000 in the bank as of Sept. 30, Simpson has more cash on-hand than all but two candidates running for state Senate this year, and only seven candidates have raised more than him this cycle.
District 6 spans Southwest Colorado, from the San Luis Valley west to the Utah border, and from the New Mexico border north to Saguache County and parts of Montrose County. Simpson ran for a seat representing District 35 in 2020, but redistrictingleft him running in SD6 for the first time this election.
Simpson opted into the spending cap when he filed to run for reelection. He had a 10-day window in which he could have opted out of the otherwise binding agreement when Smotherman entered the race and did not accept the same limit. Simpson chose to continue the race with the cap in place.
“The calculation I made (was that) I could accept the voluntary spending limits and put together a thoughtful, engaged campaign that can convince voters that I'd be the right choice on the ballot,” Simpson said.
Smotherman, a newcomer to politics, said someone at the state Democratic Party had advised against accepting the limits and so she chose not to.
By accepting the voluntary spending limits, candidates are afforded one privilege: the ability to accept donations that are up to twice as large as the contribution cap. In a Senate race, that means Simpson can accept donations of up to $450 from individuals, rather than $225.
This provision did not take effect until Simpson’s opponent had raised 10% of his spending cap, or $14,200. And according to her finance reports filed Sept. 3, Smotherman only passed that benchmark sometime in August, by which point Simpson had already raised nearly $57,000.
Of the 69 candidates who filed to run for state Senate this year (including at least 13 who have suspended their campaigns), 25 – just over one-third – accepted the spending limits. Eleven of those candidates were Republicans, five were Libertarians, four were Democrats and the remainder were members of other third parties.
Three candidates – two Republicans and a Democrat – who had initially accepted the limits later withdrew when a challenger filed to run and chose not to do so.
Although Simpson’s spending is capped at $142,000, outside groups that cannot coordinate with him can, and are, spending heavily on the race.
The Senate Majority Fund, a state-level super PAC supporting Republican state Senate candidates, has spent nearly $135,000 in SD6.
The group received a $550,000 donation from Colorado Dawn, a conservative dark-money group based in Colorado Springs that does not disclose its donors. The Senate Majority Fund also received $1 million from its federal arm of the same name. This cycle, that PAC has accepted five-figure donations from companies including Chevron, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Anheuser-Busch and Amazon.
Senate Majority Fund was behind a series of mailers that went out across the district, including one which criticized Smotherman of being financially irresponsible.
The mailer highlighted a lien placed on her property in New Mexico in 2005, the fact that Smotherman’s wages were garnished to pay child support in 1998 and a late tax payment to La Plata County this year.
However, New Mexico automatically garnishes a noncustodial parent’s wages for child support. Smotherman did say her tax bill was likely late this year, but that it had been paid.
La Plata County records show the $1,100 tax bill, along with $45 interest, was paid Sept. 4 – 15 days before the committee paid Axiom Strategies for the campaign material, but about 10 days after its author checked county records.
Smotherman called her late payment “just further proof that I’m a working class candidate.”
Colorado Politics reported last week that Smotherman had spent about $1,000 of campaign money on clothing and makeup and questioned whether such expenditures fit within the state’s rules that candidates “may not use contributions for personal purposes not reasonably related to the election of the candidate.”
Simpson, who is not allowed to coordinate with the PAC spending money in the race, said he prefers to shy away from the negative campaigning. He intended to use his war chest in the remaining four weeks on standard campaign materials, such as mailers and radio ads.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
An earlier version of this story erred in saying Vivian Smotherman chose not to accept voluntary spending limits at the suggestion of the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. She made the decision at the suggestion of the state Democratic Party. The error was the result of a miscommunication.
