Meat industry donates big to defeat Denver slaughterhouse ban, while sales tax campaigns build war chests

Donors have dug into their pockets for a combined $1.9 million so far to defeat initiatives 308 and 309, the Denver ballot measures that would ban most fur sales and ban slaughterhouses in the city.

Those opposition committees — which so far have outraised and outspent the animal-rights group behind both initiatives several times over — are the only ones that have raised a dime to defeat any of the nine city ballot measures in Tuesday’s election, according to campaign finance reports filed in mid-October.

Meanwhile, support campaigns for five ballot questions, including those measures as well as two proposed sales tax increases, have combined to raise $3.9 million. The reports cover fundraising through Oct. 14, and the final preelection reports updating their finances are due Friday.

Outside the campaigning on the proposed bans, the heavy fundraising is an indication that backers of measures without much in the way of organized opposition — like the large sales tax increases being sought to stabilize Denver Health’s finances, through Ballot Issue 2Q, and to greatly expand affordable housing projects and programs in the city, through Ballot Issue 2R — aren’t sitting on their hands.

In fact, supporters of the two tax committees still had $1.8 million left in mid-October to get their messages across during the final three weeks of election season, as voting began.

Here are key takeaways from the latest campaign finance figures available on the city’s online dashboard.

Slaughterhouse ban is priciest campaign

While spending on city ballot measures has paled in comparison to state ballot question campaigning this fall, Initiated Ordinance 309, the slaughterhouse ban, is at the center of the most expensive campaign on the city ballot this year. Meat industry groups that oppose it are driving the fundraising.

The ordinance, sponsored by Pro-Animal Future, would shut down the only slaughterhouse business in operation in Denver today. That’s the Superior Farms lamb slaughterhouse in north Denver, which employs 160 people and accounts for up to 20% of all U.S. capacity to slaughter lambs and process their meat for consumption.

Three opposition campaigns, including one that’s also opposing Initiated Ordinance 308 — the fur ban — had brought in $1.9 million as of the most recent reporting deadline. That’s nearly 33% of the almost $5.9 million in total reported fundraising by all city issue committees thus far in the 2024 election cycle.

The trio of committees that formed to oppose 309 — called “Hands Off My Hat Denver,” “Stop the Ban. Protect Jobs.” and “Local Food. Strong Denver.” — reported a combined $307,257 left in cash as of Oct. 14. The Hands Off My Hat group is the one that’s also opposing Initiative 308.

The combined amount opponents still had left to spend was more than the proponents had even raised. The Pro-Animal Denver committee reported fundraising of $303,270 — for spending on both 308 and 309 — but as of Oct. 14, it had just $7,309 left.

The campaign, along with other supporters, have tried to make up for the fundraising disadvantage through news conferences and releases of hidden-camera investigations into Superior Farms’ practices at the slaughterhouse.

Aidan Cook, the campaign director for Pro-Animal Future, said money poured into the opposing campaigns is a clear demonstration that animal agriculture lobbying groups “realize it’s a real threat to the business model of hyperindustrialized factory farms.”

“Denver voters should be aware that these lobbying groups don’t care about workers … they just care about protecting their profits,” he said.

On the other side of the issue, Ian Silverii, a spokesman for the Stop the Ban. Protect Jobs. committee, referred to the slaughterhouse ban measure as a “twisted experiment” as proponents build to a broader goal of ending all animal agriculture as it exists today.

“Turns out, when you pick a fight with people whose livelihoods are on the line, they fight back,” he said of his campaign’s significant fundraising advantage.

The biggest donations to the opposition campaigns include $250,000 from the Meat Institute, a nonprofit meat and poultry industry trade group; $83,000 from the Colorado Livestock Association; and $80,000 from the American Sheep Industry Association, headquartered in the south Denver suburbs.

Superior Farms itself has donated more than $171,000 in monetary and in-kind contributions to the campaign. The employee-owned company is headquartered in California.

Funding of bans’ support campaigns

Pro-Animal Future was called out by opponents this summer for running donations through its own nonprofit, obscuring the identities of the organizations giving to its campaign. But records on the city’s website today do identify those donors by name.

The largest contributors to Pro-Animal Denver include a combined $110,000 from the Phauna Foundation and $50,000 each from the Craigslist Charitable Fund and Animal Charity Evaluators. Phauna “seeds ambitious animal rights organizations and individuals working to end human exploitation of other species,” according to its website, and the latter two organizations say they oppose factory farming and other forms of animal exploitation.

For the fur ban measure, records show a separate Yes on 308 campaign reported $10,475 in in-kind contributions by the Humane Society of the United States for staff time.

Sales tax campaigns bring in big hauls

No one has donated money to defeat Ballot Issue 2Q, the 0.34% sales tax designed to bring in $70 million per year to financially stabilize Denver Health, the city’s struggling social safety net hospital.

The same can be said for Ballot Issue 2R. That measure, spearheaded by Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, would exceed even 2Q’s record ask and increase the city’s sales tax rate by 0.5 percentage points. It would raise an estimated $100 million a year to boost affordable housing programs and development in the city.

If both pass, the city’s effective sales tax rate on most purchases — now 8.81% — would increase to 9.65%.

Despite the lack of organized opposition, committees backing those two measures have raised a combined $3.2 million this cycle anyway to get their messages across to voters.

The Healing Denver committee that is backing 2Q has raised $1.9 million, and as of Oct. 14, it still had nearly $700,000 left on hand. Major contributors include Heart of Denver, an organization launched to back the campaign and tout the hospital’s benefits to the city. It has given more than $257,000.

The Thiry-O’Leary Living Trust, connected to former DaVita dialysis company CEO Kent Thiry and his wife, Denise O’Leary, has given $150,000. And the advocacy arm of Gary Community Ventures has given a combined $125,000. Johnston was the CEO of Gary from early 2020 to late 2022 before running for mayor.

Gary Advocacy has also been a major contributor to the support committee for Issue 2R, the affordable housing tax. The organization donated $200,0000 to the campaign on Oct. 1.

Leading the support for 2R is Action Now Initiative LLC, an affiliate of Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy launched by former Enron executive and hedge fund manager John Arnold, who earlier was a contributor to an independent expenditure committee that backed Johnston’s mayoral bid last year. This year, the LLC has given $250,000 of the $1.35 million raised by the Affordable Denver committee to date in support of the tax measure.

Affordable Denver was still holding onto most of its money as of Oct. 14, with a closing balance of just over $1.12 million, though it’s possible the reported spending hadn’t yet reflected some TV ad reservations.

Unions line up for collective bargaining

Denver’s other citywide ballot measures mostly are lower-profile questions placed by the City Council. Among them, just one has drawn any financial support — through Stronger Denver, the committee supporting Referred Question 2U.

That measure would grant rank-and-file city employees the right to unionize and collectively bargain with city management, a right now held by the city’s public safety employees.

Not surprisingly, contributions that have driven the 2U campaign’s $378,180 in donations to date have come from unions. That includes more than $253,000 from the Communication Workers of America and its affiliates, $25,0000 from the Colorado Education Association, and $25,000 from the Teamsters and its local affiliates.

Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.