Ballot measure supporters raise another half million

Supporters of the proposed $950 million K-12 tax increase have raised an additional $502,205 in the last month, according to campaign spending reports filed with the state Tuesday evening.

That brings the total raised by Colorado Commits to Kids to $1.59 million. The committee has spent about $1 million, leaving $582,670 on hand.

Among contributions of note were $200,000 from the Colorado Education Association (bringing its total to $450,00), $150,000 from prominent Democratic donor Pat Stryker of Fort Collins (bring her cumulative total to $400,000), $100,000 from Kaiser Permanente Financial Services of Pasadena, Calif., $10,000 from Kaiser Colorado chief Donna Lynne and $10,000 from Robert Tointon, a Greeley developer.

The committee’s larger expenditures included more than $61,000 to political consultants OnSight Public Affairs; $65,000 to consultants Keating Research, and $212,848 to FieldWorks, which ran the campaign’s signature-gathering campaign. Campaign manager Andrew Freedman, formerly Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia’s chief of staff, was paid $4,638 in salary.

So, Colorado Commits has raised about half its funds from two donors — the CEA and Stryker — and spent about half its money on with FieldWorks for petition circulation. (The firm previously was paid about $565,000 previously.)

Coloradans for Real Education Reform, an opposition group, reported it had no contributions or expenditures during the August reporting period.