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The Colorado Capitol News Alliance is a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, with support from news outlets throughout the state. Startup funding for the Alliance was provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Purplish: Amid America’s most expensive election cycle, where’s the Colorado campaign cash flowing?

Television and text ads for Colorado candidates and ballot measures.
Illustration: Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Television and text ads for Colorado candidates and ballot measures.

Much of the focus around Victor Marx’s campaign finance has been on the Republican gubernatorial candidate’s donations. But when CPR’s Ben Markus dug into Marx’s expenditures, it sparked a series of questions that eventually led him out of state, to a suburban area near Las Vegas’ lavish strip.

Markus joins CPR’s Bente Birkeland to talk about what he learned, as well as a look at the campaign finance reports of Marx’s Democratic challenger, Colorado attorney general Phil Weiser. CPR's Caitlyn Kim also joins the conversation to talk about the campaign cash flowing in and out of Colorado’s tightest congressional races.

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Purplish is produced by CPR News and the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Startup funding for the Alliance was provided, in part, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Purplish’s producer is Stephanie Wolf. Sound design and engineering by Shane Rumsey. Story editing from Nicole Vap. The theme music is by Brad Turner. Other music in this episode is courtesy of Blue Dot Sessions. Megan Verlee is CPR News’ executive producer of podcasts.

Bente Birkeland is an award-winning journalist who joined Colorado Public Radio in August 2018 after a decade of reporting on the Colorado state capitol for the Rocky Mountain Community Radio collaborative and KUNC. In 2017, Bente was named Colorado Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and she was awarded with a National Investigative Reporting Award by SPJ a year later.
Ben Markus is an investigative reporter for Colorado Public Radio. Ben joined Colorado Public Radio in April 2011 as a general assignment reporter. He was named business reporter in 2017 and became the investigative reporter in 2019. As a business reporter, he shaped CPR's business and economics coverage creating dozens of databases to track the important drivers that define the Colorado economy.
Caitlyn has been with Colorado Public Radio since 2019.