Spending in Colorado’s CD-4 down from years past

The Coloradoan reports that total spending in the 2010 Northern Colorado congressional race was down from two years earlier, largely because outside groups showed less interest this year.

Democrat Betsy Markey and Republican Cory Gardner combined to spend just over $6 million on a race that Gardner won by 11 percentage points, the most ever spent by candidates in a 4th Congressional District race. But outside groups spent $2.8 million in 2010, down from almost $5 million two years earlier.

Most of the outside spending occurred early in the fall, before early voting started in mid-October. By that time, it became evident that Gardner was headed to an easy victory.