Brief by Allen Best
Politics – October 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
With candidates for mayor in ski towns spending $30,000 and more to get elected, as was the case in Aspen last year, is it surprising that state legislature candidates are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In the state house district that includes Summit, Eagle and Lake counties, Republican candidate Ali Hasan has already spent $191,000, nearly all of it his own money. His opponent, Christine Scanlan, a Democrat, has raised only $31,000, and spent only a third of it.
But the story is also of what outside sources are spending. That’s where Scanlan may be leading, the Vail Daily suggests. A group called Accountability for Colorado is doing mailings on her behalf. Big-dollar donors for that campaign include Pat Stryker, a medical-supplies heiress, and Tim Gill, the founder of the software company Quark.
