Pete Coors paid more in income tax last year than at least two of his U.S. Senate opponents earned in the past five years.
Huh. You don’t say. I’m trying to figure out why this is the lead paragraph (and only thing visible from the story) on the Rocky’s front page (web).
Okay. It sounds like Pete Coors is either rich (big duh), or some of his opponents are relatively poor (no idea), or he’s got a not-terribly-effective tax accountant.
The story is headlined “Coffers of candidates,” but I’d think that would be about campaign coffers, not necessarily about personal wealth, unless the point is that Pete Coors is better able to fund his own campaign out of his own pockets than the others.
(The story, reading further, is about personal coffers, in particular disclosure of income tax records by the candidates. Coors pays about 1/4 of his income — which is in the multi-millions — in federal taxes. On the other hand, one of the “at least two” — Ken Salazar — drew in $800k over that time, due to fluctuating outside business. The other one, Mike Miles, is an educator. Nuff said.)
I’ve really not been following along the Senate race, and have no particular affinity to Pete Coors (having read about the family, I actually have a bit of a disaffinity), but it still seems like an odd statement to lead with.