Colorado candidates are filing their final campaign finance reports before the 2024 election. In the race to represent House District 13, Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie (D-Dillon) maintains a wide fundraising advantage over businessman Dave Williams (R-Buena Vista). 

District 13 spans Chaffee, Grand, Jackson, Lake, Park and Summit counties.

McCluskie, the incumbent, has raised just over $135,700 and spent nearly $99,000, with roughly $58,500 cash on hand as of Monday, Oct. 28. By comparison, Williams has raised about $16,500 and spent just under $11,000, with roughly $5,600 cash on hand, according to financial filings. 

Some of McCluskie’s largest single contributions have come from political action committees — known as PACs — and small donor committees. 

She received $3,000 from Building a Strong Colorado, a committee which only accepts small donations from individuals. The committee has donated to multiple other Democratic candidates running for the Statehouse this election and in previous cycles. 

McCluskie also received $2,000 from the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association Small Donor Committee and $1,000 from the Centennial State Prosperity Small Donor Committee.

Other PACs that have donated to McCluskie’s reelection campaign include the Colorado Independent Auto Dealers Political Committee, the Colorado Restaurant Association’s HOST PAC, and the federal PAC for State Farm — a national insurance company. 

High profile individual donors include Gov. Jared Polis, who gave $450, and Arapahoe Basin Ski Area COO Alan Henceroth, who gave $100. McCluskie has also netted a number of small donations from individuals, with some giving just a few dollars. 

Williams’s fundraising has largely been propelled by Republican groups, including the Grand County Republican Party, which gave $2,000, and the Chaffee County Republican Central Committee, which has given $2,750 as of Monday.

Williams received $250 from Take Colo Back, a PAC dedicated to electing conservative candidates in local and state races. 

Like McCluskie, he’s seen a number of smaller contributions from individual donors, but most of that fundraising has slowed since mid-September. In Williams’s final contribution and expenditure filing on Monday, which covers Oct. 10-23, he didn’t report any small contributions from individuals. 

First elected in 2018, McCluskie became, in 2022, the first woman from the Western Slope to serve as speaker of the House. She has run on a platform of lowering housing costs by helping support workforce development via state funds, cutting property taxes and bolstering funding for public education. 

Williams is a private home contractor and chair of the Chaffee County Republican Party. He has positioned himself as a moderate Republican who opposes government intervention on most issues, including housing. He’s blamed high housing costs, in-part, on government regulations that he argues have stifled private development. 

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Ballots must be returned by 7 p.m. that day.