The campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis is planning to spend $3 million on television ads in the final weeks of the campaign.
The Wednesday announcement about the ad buy for October underscores the advantage of Polis’ willingness to put millions of his own money into the election: The buy is more than the $2.38 million total that Republican candidate and State Treasurer Walker Stapleton has raised so far.
The ads will play in the media markets of Denver, Colorado Springs-Pueblo, and Grand Junction-Montrose.
“Throughout Colorado, there is already incredible excitement for Jared’s bold plans to reduce the cost of health care, invest in our public schools, and tackle the rising cost of living so that Colorado families can get ahead,” said Polis campaign manager Jenn Ridder in a statement. “We have more than 3,000 volunteers on the ground who have knocked on 120,000 doors in just the last month.”
Ridder said the campaign is aiming to build on that momentum.
The race is drawing national attention from Republicans angling for a pickup opportunity for a governor’s seat. The Republican Governors Association has already put about $2 million into ads in the race.
The Colorado governor’s office is one of the few competitive races that is a pickup opportunity for Republicans. There are 36 governor races this election, and of those, 26 are races in states with Republican governors.
“Since we hold a large majority of governorships, we only have a handful of states that we can play offense in this year,” said Jon Thompson, spokesman for the RGA. “Colorado is one of our top pickup opportunities.”
Stapleton’s campaign hasn’t yet announced any media ad buy figures. Campaign officials said volunteers have knocked on more than 100,000 doors and made more than 250,000 phone calls.
In a statement, Stapleton campaign manager Michael Fortney said: “It’s perfect timing for Congressman Jared Polis to announce a big media buy. Just this week he also announced he is doing zero public events. Congressman Polis might think this is a winning strategy since he has purchased every seat he has ever won, but Colorado voters will recognize this arrogance.”
Polis is traveling this week, his campaign said, but has had more than 250 meet-and-greet events across the state and has more planned.
Polis has given his campaign most of the $13.1 million it has collected. He limits donations from individuals to $100 per person.
Stapleton has contributed about $1 million of his campaign’s $2.38 million total raised, according to campaign filings.
Polis reported $1.26 million cash on hand at the end of July. Stapleton reported $301,811 cash on hand.
An earlier version of this story misattributed a statement from the Stapleton campaign.