May 04, 2022 11:32 AM UTC

Tina Peters Buries Pam Anderson's Fundraising

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• by: Colorado Pols

It seems fitting that embattled Republican Secretary of State candidate Tina Peters, who is facing criminal charges, contempt of court penalties, and an ethics commission investigation all pertaining to her role in the theft and leak of election system data, was one of the last state candidates to submit fundraising numbers for the most recent period earning herself a modest fine. But as the press release from Peters’ campaign makes clear, she’s not sweating the $150 fine for reporting late:

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters filed her campaign’s first fundraising report Tuesday May 3rd. Peters’ financials show that her fundraising for the first period of 2022, dwarfs the other two candidates vying for the Republican nomination in Colorado’s Secretary of State primary June 28th. The primary will choose which Republican faces off with Democrat Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, in November.

Clerk Peters, is the frontrunner and will lead the ballot after having secured 61% of the delegates at Colorado’s Republican Assembly in April. Griswold has focused much of her own fundraising on Peters being her presumptive opponent.

Now Peters has built a seemingly insurmountable lead in fundraising for the Republican primary, despite having only announced for the race on Valentine’s Day. Peters’ report totals $158,728 raised in donations and those were recorded in the final eight weeks of the sixteen-week reporting period. After almost 2000 donors averaged $77.00 per donation, Peters has approximately $100,000 cash on hand heading into May. Contrast that with Pam Anderson who is her primary opponent, Anderson reported just $5,665.97 on hand, as of her May 2nd report…

Tina Peters kicked off her campaign for Secretary of State in February already under a cloud of criminal and ethics investigations, but the attention she has received as a national figure in the conspiracy theories keeping the hopes of Donald Trump’s most diehard supporters alive has given her a powerful advantage in terms of fundraising over her milquetoast primary opponent Pam Anderson. Peters’ strong performance further underscores Anderson’s weakness in this race, running on a message not just disagreed with but considered treasonous by a majority of Republican voters.

In the Republican primary for Colorado Secretary of State, all the momentum now is with Tina Peters. By every available metric, Peters is the frontrunner. Peters dominated the vote at the state assembly, and now holds a commanding lead in fundraising. Peters is getting orders of magnitude more earned media attention. Coverage one might perceive as negative about Peters’ criminal case, at least until June 28th, is not a major liability with GOP primary voters. To the extent they’ve heard of Peters, a large percentage will see her as a hero.

Regardless of their affiliation, anyone denying this is out of touch with today’s Republican Party.