Contributions to campaign*: $503,647 in contributions, plus $300,000 Robinson loaned his own campaign.
Balance minus expenses: $65,653
Contributions to independent expenditure committee** supporting the candidate:
$349,650 —Build Colorado’s Future. The largest donors to the IEC were Ole Jensen, an oral surgeon in Englewood ($55,000); Stephen Boyd, a former IRS special agent in the Denver area ($50,000); Charles McNeil, CEO of Nexgen Oil and Gas ($36,000); and Kevin Kauffman, founder, CEO and president of K.P. Kauffman Company, Inc., a mining/energy company ($30,000). The candidate’s uncle, Mitt Romney of Holladay, Utah, contributed $25,000.
General donor profile
Total raised from large contributors ($1,000 to the maximum allowable $1,150): $337,400 from almost 300 individuals and one PAC, or 67 percent of all donations.
Total raised from out-of-state contributors: $110,449 from individuals outside of Colorado, or 22 percent of the overall contributions.
Top sectors associated with donors: Nearly 40 percent of Robinson’s donors declined to specify an occupation. Of those donors who did provide an occupation, the most common and highest donating occupations were:
General business: about 170 donations totaling $104,948
Real Estate: almost 70 donations totaling $31,054
Attorney/Legal: over 50 donations totaling $29,035
Companies with greatest number of donors and/or donations:
The top employer was Robinson’s most recent employer, KPMG, a consultant business, which gave $5,400.
Nexgen Resources employees, a mining/energy company, gave $4,600. When counting contributions from spouses, this total increases to over $9,000.
The third highest employer was Seventy2 Capital Wealth Management employees, which gave $3,300.
Top family donors:
Romneys: Robinson’s maternal uncle, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Romney’s wife, four of their five sons, two daughters-in-law and Mitt’s former sister-in-law donated a combined $9,700 to Robinson’s campaign committee, or 2.69 percent of the total.
Robinsons & Carlson: Robinson’s wife, Diane Carlson, donated the maximum amount, as did her brother, Steven, and his wife, Carol.
Robinson’s brother Greg, sister Kristen and brother-in-law Ken also donated the maximum, while his brother Tim of Alpine, Utah, gave $500.
All but the youngest of Robinson’s five children, two of whom are in college, contributed between $1,000 and the maximum, for a total of $4,400.
All told, Robinson’s wife, her siblings, his siblings and their children donated a combined $11,800 to his gubernatorial campaign.
Jensens: Denver’s Ole Jensen, an oral surgeon, his wife, Martha, and his son and daughter-in-law Sverre and Erin donated a combined $2,700 to Robinson’s campaign.
McNeils: Charles and Judith McNeil, well-known Denver-area philanthropists, also donated the maximum to both Robinson and Williams in 2017. So did Charles’s sister, Linda, and the couple’s daughter Kealey Reynolds, son-in-law Clay, son Ryan, daughter-in-law Erin, son Travis and daughter-in-law Celeste. All told, the McNeil family donated $10,350 to Robinson’s campaign.
Data compiled by Crystal Eilerman and Shannon Mullane from June 18, 2018 campaign disclosure statements, which cover May 31 through June 13 and are the most recent candidate filings with the Colorado Secretary of State. The next filing deadline is July 2.
**Independent expenditure committees can accept unlimited contributions, but how such committees spend that money cannot be controlled or coordinated by the candidate.
The research on the donations to the major candidates for governor of Colorado from both parties was conducted by graduate students in the precision journalism class at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The instructor is Burt Hubbard, former data base reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post and Rocky Mountain PBS. The students providing the research are: Giselle Cesin, Amanda Clark, Crystal Eilerman, Joseph Getty, Anne Henning, Rey-Lynn Little, Shannon Mullane, Heather Sackett and Jentry Womack.
