May 01, 2013 03:26 PM UTC

Several Likely 2014 Candidates Have Yet to File

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• by: Colorado Pols

We've long passed the Q1 fundraising period for 2014, and while it is still early, there are quite a few candidates who have yet to even file an official candidate affidavit to run for office next year.

Of course, there are several reasons why you might wait to mail that piece of paper. Republican Rep. Mark Waller, for example, is widely believed to be planning a run for Attorney General, but there's no benefit to filing a candidate affidavit at least until the end of the legislative session.

The other thing to remember is that candidates for state office must file a personal financial disclosure form within 10 days of submitting their official candidate affidavit; some candidates may not have that information together yet, or may not be ready to disclose their recent finances. For someone like Gov. John Hickenlooper, who separated from his wife since last filing a candidate affidavit in 2010, this process could be significantly more complicated. 

Republican State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, who supplements his state salary with outside work, may still be in discussions with his accountant as well. There are also rumors that Stapleton may be considering a run for Governor instead of re-election, but because you can transfer funds from one statewide campaign account to another, there would be no advantage to waiting to form a 2014 campaign account.

Nevertheless, it is a bit strange for incumbents (highlighted in red and blue below) to wait on filing their official paperwork, if nothing else because they can't raise money officially without a campaign committee. This isn't a huge deal for Hickenlooper, who is unlikely to face a formidable Republican opponent, but Stapleton is not going to get a straight path to re-election with the likelihood that former Democratic Congresswoman Betsy Markey will make a bid for Treasurer.

Of course, conspiracy theorists might say that Hickenlooper and/or Stapleton may be undecided on running for re-election at all, but it's far too early to go down that rabbit hole.

In the meantime, take a look below at who has filed their paperwork to run in 2014, and who has not: