June 12, 2012 08:53 PM UTC

J. Paul Brown, Mike McLachlan in Tight Money Race

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• by: Colorado Pols

The race for House District 59 (Durango area) will be one of the most important in deciding control of the Colorado legislature. As The Durango Herald reports, the fundraising battle between incumbent Republican Rep. J. Paul Brown and Democratic challenger Mike McLachlan is a good reflection of this seat’s importance statewide:

According to the latest financial reports, as of June 4, incumbent Republican J. Paul Brown had a balance of $23,366.90. His challenger, Democrat Mike McLachlan, a lawyer based in Durango, had a balance of $23,211.80.

But through the last five months, McLachlan claimed all the fundraising momentum. Filings show that on Feb. 1, Brown had $18,309, whereas McLachlan’s campaign – which had not been announced yet – had $0.

Yet in this quarter alone, McLachlan raised more than $10,000 from 63 individual donations – compared to Brown’s $2,315 from seven donors.

We haven’t checked the finance reports to see if McLachlan has had many contributions from bears thus far.