April 06, 2010 12:47 AM UTC

Norton Raises $816,000

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• by: Colorado Pols

Lynn Bartels writes for The Spot:

Senate candidate Jane Norton raised some serious dough in the first fund-raising quarter of the year, taking in $816,000 – 48 percent more than she raised in the final quarter of 2009.

No word yet on what her two top GOP primary rivals, Ken Buck and Tom Wiens, raised but she has significantly outperformed them throughout the race.

So far, Norton has raised nearly $1.9 million since getting into the race last September.

“Norton has proven to be the only conservative candidate with the ability to parlay grassroots support into a strong campaign war chest,” her campaign said.

This certainly sets the bar higher for Norton’s primary opponent Ken Buck–but also for Democratic Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff. While nobody expects Romanoff to match the expected strong total from Sen. Michael Bennet, Romanoff absolutely must show competitiveness in fundraising, at least against expected GOP opponents, to be taken seriously going forward.

UPDATE: Oops! Norton’s camp was so eager to get this release out they forgot to, uh, finish it: