Some very expensive ships sunk on Election Day. All told, various people and groups spent about $160 million on state candidate campaigns and initiatives. About $128 million of that amount came in donations of $10,000 or more.

The largest single donation at $5 million came from Steve Wells of Wells Ranch LLP to Deep Colorado Wells — twice. Wells’s total commitment was $11,152,025 to defeat Gov. Jared Polis who, needless to say, won handily against Heidi Ganahl. The winner-loser in this Steve Wells money drain was Alex Chaffetz of Rock Chalk Media in Grand Junction. His company took in $2.1 million of Wells’s cash. He also made loads of money squeaking Lauren Boebert into her CD3 seat. Chaffetz has been making millions off Republican campaigns since 2006 when he took in roughly $460,000 from Progress Colorado and an all-time favorite campaign enterprise, Committee for the American Dream.

Wells had a worthy money competitor in Polis. He plunked down $4.7 million in one shot into his campaign and ultimately spent $12 million of his own cash. He received another $760,000 from others, or 6% of the total. Polis spent his money with Canal Partners, Biden’s media firm, so that may end up being Polis’s next competition. Will Biden or Polis become Canal Partner’s next presidential hopeful?

Colorado Fine Wines and Spirits, the campaign finance arm of the Trone brothers out of Maryland who wanted to expand their liquor business in this state, pitched $3.5 million in one chunk to Coloradans for Consumer Choice and Retail Fairness, two values most Coloradans put at the very top of their Maslow list of motivators. All-told, the Consumer Choice committee spent almost $13 million to grab the liquor market here.

BlueWest Media, a Democrat-oriented political media company out of Denver, took in about $4.3 million to persuade Coloradans to expand liquor store franchises. That bid was blown away as Coloradans, in their general support of the corner liquor store, turned down the initiative 62.31% to 37.69%. BlueWest did better with candidates for Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Attorney General Phil Weiser and state Treasurer Dave Young. They won easily.

In contrast to Coloradans for Consumer Choice and Retail Fairness, Wine in Grocery Stores only spent $11,627,319 on Colorado media and mail in its one-point squeaker win. Contributors to Wine in Grocery Stores included Whole Foods, Albertsons-Safeway, Target, Door Dash, Instacart, and, at the low end, Kroger.

MIDG Group operated by Democratic political consultant Sheila MacDonald earned about $77,000 to guide the Wine in Grocery stores campaign, along with Clear Strategies, run by Peggi O’Keefe and Cammie Grant, at about $27,000. Clear Strategies has victorious campaign ties to the gaming and marijuana industries giving its principals a good understanding of what appeals to voters in the “sin” areas. Its winning marijuana and gambling initiatives have contributed greatly to Colorado’s budgets through increases in taxes that help schools and other needy programs.

Some losers lose in more ways than just money. Take the Ready Colorado Action Fund, an independent expenditure committee of Ready Colorado, a conservative outfit supporting education issues and more. Its leader, Brenda Dickhoner used to work for the Colorado Department of Education and is on the board of the Charter School Institute, the statewide authorizer for charter schools. The Ready Colorado Action Fund gathered morethan $3 million from the Colorado Chamber of Commerce and other business interests.

The Ready Colorado Action Fund sent its money mostly to Creative Direct out of Virginia and Push Digital out of South Carolina. They ran TV ads and mail-in support of losing GOP candidates such as Tim Walsh, Colin Larson and Dan Woog. They put $40,000 against newly elected Democrat Jennifer Parenti, $70,000 against newly elected Democrat Sheila Lieder, $78,300 against newly elected Democrat Eliza Hamrick and $80,000 against newly elected state Sen. Tom Sullivan. Those efforts didn’t work. Now Ready Colorado has to figure out a way to work with these legislators in the 2023-24 General Assemblies.

The 76 Group and Ascent Media, both led by Republican luminaries former state Sen. Josh Penry, Liesl Hickey and Tim Pollard, couldn’t figure out a way to drag their Republican candidates over the finish lines. The 76 Group received about $1.3 million from the GOP’s Better Jobs Coalition and about $1.35 million to Ascent Media in support of Tim Walsh, state senator candidate against Lisa Cutter, and other House and Senate legislator candidates. More sunk ships.

Political campaigns are interesting. Candidates win or lose, but the media and mail companies make their money regardless. Plus, they catch a break between campaign seasons. The GOP consultants and media firms will need to put that time to good use. Republicans in Colorado need more than a re-brand. They need a complete re-think.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.