Serving the community since 1906
WEEK OF DECEMBER 19, 2024
VOLUME 117 | ISSUE 51
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Final price tag of race in CD8: $40 million About $24 million was spent to benefit Caraveo, who lost to Evans by about 2,500 votes BY JESSE PAUL THE COLORADO SUN
The employees standing in line created a tunnel to honor Abby Garza as the first person to enter the restaurant. She was there by 3:00 a.m. PHOTO BY BELEN WARD
Raising Canes Chicken Fingers comes to Brighton come, “ said Raising Canes’ that have growth potential to do some salmon fishing Brighton residents area leader Jesse Mahaffey. and need chicken fingers, to raise more money,” Ma“So far, we had over 3,000 which is just about every city haffey said. “And then came line up to sample applicants of crew members in the United States,” Ma- back and opened up the first wanted to work here. We haffey said. restaurant outside Louisiana popular chicken finger who hired over 100 crew members At 28 years old, the fried State University’s gates.” just for this opening alone.” chicken brand has had imThe Brighton Raising Canes chain restaurant “We are excited to have an- pressive growth thanks to grand opening featured a vaBY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
More than 100 people lined the driveway in cold temperatures on Dec. 10 to celebrate the ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening of Raising Canes Chicken Fingers in Brighton’s Prairie Center. The store, the 186th restaurant for the company and the 21st in Colorado, is located at 1986 Prairie Center Parkway. “We are excited, and we have a huge community wel-
other option here for people to enjoy, and people seem to love their chicken fingers. I know there’s one on almost every corner now, and people will enjoy having choices over here,” said Brighton Mayor Greg Mills. Mahaffey said the company’s plan to open the Brighton location has been in the works for more than a year. “We chose Brighton because it’s a growing community, and this is our 21st restaurant in Colorado, so we’re always looking at locations
owner and founder Todd Graves, Mahaffey said. “Todd is an amazing gentleman, and it’s the best company I’ve ever worked for. He started for Raising Canes in 1996 outside the gates of Louisiana State University,” he said. Graves had the idea for the restaurant but had a difficult time finding investors, eventually working odd jobs around the country to find the money. “He went to California to raise money, worked in the oil fields, then went to Alaska
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riety of activities, giveaways, and a DJ spinning tunes. They held a “Lucky 20” drawing to award 20 customers free chicken fingers for a year. The first 100 customers to purchase a combo box got a commemoritive beani and a free Canes Box Combo card. Mahaffey also brought along a $1,000 donation for the Brighton Legacy Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization that supports community needs. SEE OPENING, P19
The final price tag of the race in Colorado’s highly competitive 8th Congressional District this year was about $40 million, with three-quarters of that sum being spent by super PACs. Most of the money — or about $24 million — was spent to benefit incumbent U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat. But it wasn’t enough, as she lost to Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans by about 2,500 votes, or about 1 percentage point. Caraveo’s campaign raised about $8.1 million for her reelection bid, spending all but about $90,000 of that through Election Day, according to her campaign finance report filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. The report reflected fundraising and spending from Oct. 17 through Nov. 25. Caraveo spent more than $2 million in the final weeks of the campaign, most of that on advertising. Evans’ campaign raised and spent about $2.5 million to beat Caraveo. That includes $642,000 in the final weeks of the contest, with most of that money going to advertising. The campaign paid Evans $3,000 in salary in November, and still owed $128,000 to vendors on Nov. 25, mostly for victory bonuses. The campaign had about $88,000 left in cash on Nov. 25. The single-biggest super PAC spender on the contest was the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is tied to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican. The group dropped about $6.7 million on the contest, the outcome of which helped Republicans keep their narrow majority in the U.S. House. House Majority PAC, a Democratic group, was the second-biggest super PAC spender on the race, at $6 million. Caraveo also benefitted from $2.3 million in spending by Fairshake PAC, a group that SEE RACE, P14
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