Three readers questioned our February 2026 campaign finance coverage. Each deserves a direct answer.
Email 1: Pettersen District Breakdown
Macheco asked how much of Pettersen’s Colorado money came from her own district. The short answer is 3.5%, a ration of 25 : 1.
The question merited separate analysis. This issue includes a standalone article with full details.
Brittany Pettersen raised $126,544 from Colorado in 2025. Her district provided $39,754. Out-of-state donors contributed $998,394. Out-of-state donors gave 25 times more than her own district. CD-7 constituents provided 31.4% of Colorado money. They provided 3.5% of total fundraising. The analysis required mapping 947 Colorado donors to congressional district boundaries.
Full details appear in the accompanying article.
Email 2: Data Methodology
Naomi Rockafellow asked whether our CD-5 dataset aggregates multiple election cycles.
The data covers January 1 through December 31, 2025 only. Our February 2 FEC download included 99 late-filed 2024 contributions. We filtered those out. The published analysis includes only 2025 contributions for the 2026 race.
The FEC continuously updates candidate financial data. Committees file amendments, corrections, and supplemental reports throughout election cycles. Our analysis represents a February 2 snapshot. Current FEC data will differ from these figures. Readers should not compare our published numbers with current FEC data because the database updates daily.
Email 3: Missing CD-5 Candidates
Jacob Fausnaugh wrote that we lost Jessica Killin and missed Joe Reagan, Zuri Horowitz, and Matt Cavanaugh.
Fausnaugh is wrong about Killin. She appears first in our CD-5 section. She raised $1,660,580.
Fausnaugh is correct about the other three. All filed Year-End 2025 reports by January 31. All appeared in our February 2 FEC download. We excluded them during editing.
The grumpy old men processed 18,405 FEC records covering 28 Colorado federal candidates. The CD-5 data came from multiple files downloaded at different times during our February 2 research.
Joe Reagan raised $116,373. Matt Cavanaugh raised $111,284. Zuri Horowitz raised $27,370. We also missed Jamey Smith. He raised $50,311.
The oversight becomes clear in comparison. Reagan raised more than River Gassen, whom we included. Cavanaugh raised more than Colin Monaghan, whom we included. Both deserved publication.
Here is the complete CD-5 Democratic field:Candidate 2025 Raised Cash on Hand Jessica Killin $1,660,580 $1,227,175 Joe Reagan $116,373 $18,727 River Gassen $115,425 $71,885 Matt Cavanaugh $111,284 $42,811 Marjaan Sirdar $89,045 $31,699 Colin Monaghan $83,600 $22,445 Jamey Smith $50,311 $11,816 Zuri Horowitz $27,370 $10,337 Dylan Finch $16,600 $9,820
Jeff Crank raised $1,396,736 as the Republican incumbent.
Matt Cavanaugh registered as an independent in October 2025. He switched to the Democratic Party on January 3, 2026. His Year-End filing shows Democratic Party affiliation.
We published only candidates who filed FEC reports and raised money by December 31, 2025. Independent candidate Roy Matthewson raised $200. Independent candidate Steven Fuller raised $0. Both fell below publication threshold.
What This Means
Campaign finance reporting creates unavoidable lag between reality and publication. We download data, analyze patterns, write articles, and publish findings. The FEC updates its database continuously during that process.
The alternative is no reporting at all. We accept the limitation that our snapshots capture moments in time rather than moving targets.
The correction matters more than the methodology explanation. CD-5 voters deserve complete information about their choices. Reagan, Cavanaugh, Horowitz, and Smith earned inclusion through fundraising that exceeded candidates we published.
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