This chronology supports the hypothesis-validation pass on whether Colorado conservative donor and operator networks shifted relative emphasis from statewide / legislative candidate elections toward ballot initiatives and local governance contests after Democratic statewide success.
It is not a complete campaign-finance history. It preserves the dated evidence that currently matters most for the comparative allocation question.
- Wealthy Democrats Tim Gill, Pat Stryker, Jared Polis, and Rutt Bridges help create and fund the Gang of Four / Blueprint infrastructure, described by Colorado Politics as a political machine dedicated to electing Democrats.
- Democrats win both General Assembly chambers for the first time since the early 1960s.
- Why it matters: this is the candidate-election benchmark that later conservative infrastructure is repeatedly compared against.
- Source basis:
raw/articles/2026-04-19T020251-0600 colorado-politics-10-milestones-modern-political-world.md.
- Colorado Democrats win historic statewide and legislative victories. Colorado Politics describes the result as complete state-government control: Polis elected governor, other statewide constitutional offices filled by Democrats, Democrats returning to state Senate control, and Democrats expanding their state House majority.
- Why it matters: this is the main post-Blueprint benchmark for testing conservative strategic adaptation.
- Source basis:
raw/articles/2026-04-19T020251-0600 colorado-politics-10-milestones-modern-political-world.md.
- Unite for Colorado distributes
$17.2 million, according to the Colorado Sun's reporting on the group's 2020 IRS filing.
- The same source reports spending across multiple lanes: Republican-aligned nonprofits, Ready Colorado, Public Trust Institute, a state super PAC supporting Republican state Senate candidates, federal anti-Hickenlooper ads, and ballot-measure committees.
- Why it matters: 2020 is mixed evidence. It shows a major donor vehicle experimenting with or building non-candidate infrastructure, but also spending heavily in candidate-related lanes.
- Source basis:
raw/articles/2026-04-19T020251-0600 colorado-sun-unite-for-colorado-dark-money-2020-spending.md.
- Colorado Sun reports Michael Fields saying Unite for Colorado was born from the Democratic control of state government after 2018 because conservative donors wanted a path forward without the House, Senate, or governor.
- The same source reports Fields moving into Advance Colorado Institute and describing a focus on education and issue work while retaining some connection to 501(c)(4) politics.
- Why it matters: this is the clearest direct strategic-adaptation evidence in the current source set.
- Source basis:
raw/articles/2026-04-19T020251-0600 colorado-sun-unite-for-colorado-dark-money-2020-spending.md.
- Official Colorado Secretary of State results show Polis / Primavera defeating Ganahl / Moore by
1,468,481 to 983,040.
- Retained CTR reporting also describes 2022 as a year when Colorado Republicans lost all statewide races and legislative ground.
- Why it matters: this reinforces the statewide-candidate weakness premise after the initial 2018 benchmark.
- Source basis:
raw/articles/2026-04-19T020251-0600 colorado-sos-2022-governor-general-election-results.md and retained CTR election-loss reporting.
- Existing Advance Colorado reporting says, in a year without statewide races, network funding was visible in school-board races and opposition to Proposition HH / tax policy.
- The school-board intermediary layer later preserves specific El Paso mechanisms: Springs Opportunity Fund, D11 Parents and Teachers, D11 Momentum, Axiom Strategies, Victor's Canvassing, Cole Communications, and related address / campaign-services patterns.
- Why it matters: this is the strongest local-governance lane in the repo, though currently concentrated in El Paso / Colorado Springs evidence.
- Source basis: Advance Colorado dark-money network and school-board influence and El Paso school-board intermediary network: Cole Communications, Victor's Canvassing, and D11/D20 fronts.
- Official Title Board and ballot-contact records map Advance Colorado-associated Fields / Taheri initiative rows to 2024 ballot measures, including Proposition 128, Amendment 80, and Proposition 130, while CTR reporting associates additional property-tax initiatives with the same network.
- Colorado Politics' 2024 donor overview still shows major donors shaping campaigns and ballot-measure politics, not a clean disappearance from campaigns.
- Why it matters: ballot-measure capacity is clearly durable, but donor politics remains mixed across lanes.
- Source basis: Advance Colorado Title Board initiative corpus, 2023-2026 and
raw/articles/2026-04-19T020251-0600 colorado-politics-2024-donors-shaping-races.md.
- The retained D11 Parents and Teachers TRACER slice shows one
$125,000.00 contribution from ADVANCE COLORADO ACTION.
- Why it matters: this is direct transaction-row evidence of an Advance Colorado Action link into a school-board campaign committee.
- Source basis:
raw/datasets/tracer/d11-parents-and-teachers-2025-2026/d11-parents-and-teachers-tracer-transaction-slice-2025-2026.md.
- Retained CTR reporting says Michael Fields / Advance Colorado dominates the 2026 citizen initiative process.
- The official Title Board extract shows
74 selected 2025-2026 rows where Fields appears as a designated representative, 27 selected rows that name Advance Colorado in the representative block, and 59 selected rows with West Group in the representative block.
- Why it matters: this is strong evidence of ballot-process specialization and repeated procedural capacity.
- Source basis: Advance Colorado Title Board initiative corpus, 2023-2026.
- The current TRACER statewide / El Paso candidate-committee package shows continuing candidate-committee activity, including statewide-office candidates and state-level candidate committees.
- The targeted readout shows large Democratic statewide committees and smaller but active Republican statewide committees including Victor Marx for Governor, Scott Bottoms for Governor, Greg Lopez for Colorado, and Kevin Grantham for Treasurer.
- Why it matters: this is counterevidence to any literal "abandoned candidate elections" conclusion. It supports a relative-emphasis question, not a zero-activity claim.
- Source basis: Colorado TRACER current statewide and El Paso candidate committees, 2023-2026.
2004: Democratic candidate-election infrastructure proves the Blueprint model.2018: Democratic statewide / legislative sweep creates the clearest conservative adaptation benchmark.2020-2021: Unite for Colorado / Advance Colorado emerges as a conservative donor and issue vehicle while still engaging candidate lanes.2023-2026: ballot and local / school-board mechanisms become increasingly visible in retained sources, especially Advance Colorado, Title Board, D11, D20, and parental-rights infrastructure.
- This chronology does not settle whether wealthy conservatives as a whole reallocated. It shows that a major network and related factions did, while conventional candidate politics continued.
- Local-governance evidence remains geographically uneven.
- The chronology needs a donor-level spending dataset before it can become a stronger allocation timeline.
- COVER STORY: 10 milestones that shaped Colorado's modern political world
- Conservative dark-money group bankrolled almost every major Republican effort in Colorado last year, tax docs show
- 2022 General Election Results - Governor/Lieutenant Governor
- Colorado election spending: How donors are shaping the 2024 races
- The Redprint: How Advance Colorado and Anonymous Donors Shape the Political Landscape
- DAVIS: On Holy Wars & Ballot Initiatives
- Shut Out of Power at Colorado’s Capitol, Conservative Parental Rights Groups Employ ‘Workarounds’ And Other Tactics
- Analysis: Conservative Dark Money Group Dominates Colorado’s Ballot Initiative Process for 2026
- Ballot Initiatives 50 & 108: Ready Colorado Protests Too Much
- Who is Advance Colorado?
- $600k in 90 Days? A Tax-Record Treasure Hunt
- Advance_990_2022_partial.pdf
- Advance_990_2023_partial.pdf
- Anschutz_990_2017.pdf
- Anschutz_990_2018.pdf
- Colorado-Dawn-990-2024.pdf
- HHC_990_2023.pdf
- Ready_990_2024-3.pdf
- Common Dollars & Common Sense: Inside the Persuasion Machine Shaping Colorado Elections
- Despite Claim Not to Take Sides, Common Sense Institute Accepts Funds from Conservative Advocacy Group and Pays GOP Consulting Firm To Conduct Research
- Spiked: A Conservative ‘Shadow’ Hangs Over Colorado Newspapers Owned by GOP Billionaire Phil Anschutz
- DAVIS: Your Questions About 'The Redprint,' Answered
- 2025 Review: Dark Money in Colorado Politics
- Research & Rhetoric: How Republicans Manufactured a Political Attack on John Hickenlooper
- Colorado GOP Leader Claims Phil Anschutz Funds Advance Colorado, a Conservative Activist Group
- DAVIS: The Dark Money in Your Mailbox
- D11 Parents and Teachers TRACER transaction slice 2025-2026
- Christian Nationalism, Dark Money, and the Attack on Public Education in Colorado
- Advance Colorado Title Board initiative corpus capture, 2023-2026
- Advance Colorado target initiative TRACER committee-detail captures
- Colorado SOS petition-entity live capture for Advance Colorado initiative follow-up
- Daniel Cole takes reins at Republicans' Senate Majority Fund campaign organization
- Why you're getting so many political texts, and how they're giving candidates an advantage
- Daniel Fenlason
- Victor's Canvassing - Colorado Payee - Transparency USA
- Cole Communications LLC - Colorado Payee - Transparency USA
- D11 Parents and Teachers - Colorado Committee - Transparency USA
- D11 Momentum
- Superintendent is retiring after Colorado school board president urged parents to search schools for objectionable material
- Victor's Canvassing, LLC - 20191514077 - Colorado
- Follow the Money - canvassing
- Cole Communications, LLC Colorado SOS business summary
- Victor's Canvassing, LLC Colorado SOS business summary
- Colorado Dawn Colorado SOS business summary
- Saint Vrain, Belleview, and Curtis address-census source pass
- FEC committee overview captures for Saint Vrain and Belleview address overlap
- Address-census Colorado Springs citywide current-filing sweep
- Seducing the Bride of Christ
- Dark Money and the School Board Industrial Complex
- Fire-Breathing Lesbians & Satan-Worshipping S.O.Bs: The Private Chat Logs of a Christian Conservative School District Group
- SPRINGS OPPORTUNITY FUND - 20235046590
- D11 PARENTS AND TEACHERS - 20255051114
- Elections Division response to motion for attorneys' fees, Larson matter
- America's Mom current site and WordPress API source capture
- Moms for America school-board leadership and media reports source pass
- Moms for America annual-report PDF archive
- Garfield RE-2 recall official local and TRACER source pass
- 6939.html
- 7050.html
- 7100.html
- 7295.html
- 7383.html
- 7432.html
- 7702.html
- 7808.html
- 8064.html
- 8165.html
- America's Mom CDX and endpoint expansion
- America's Mom get-involved Wayback capture 2021-06-16
- America's Mom contact page archived 2021-06-14
- America's Mom donate page archived 2022-05-24
- America's Mom Moms for America page archived 2022-05-23
- America's Mom get involved page archived 2023-09-26
- America's Mom dot-co root archived 2021-11-25
- Moms for America ProPublica nonprofit records
- Far Right Activist & Election Denier Reveals School Board Recall Defense Plan on Secret Recording
- DAVIS: This November’s School Board Elections Are More Important Than You Think
- DAVIS: Bullying Kids is Bad Politics