Democratic gubernatorial candidates U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser, and the campaign committees that support them, entered the election year with almost $9 million on hand, as the race to succeed term-limited Colorado Gov. Jared Polis heats up.

Although Weiser started the year with more than twice as much campaign cash in the bank as Bennet, according to quarterly campaign finance reports filed last week, the super PAC backing Bennet had an even wider advantage over Weiser’s super PAC, giving neither candidate a significant edge.

Weiser finished the year with just under $3.5 million left to spend, ahead of the just under $1.6 million reported by Bennet.

Balancing the scales, however, the super PAC supporting Bennet, Rocky Mountain Way, had just under $3.3 million on hand at the end of the quarter, dwarfing the roughly $527,000 banked by Fighting for Colorado, the super PAC behind Weiser. Super PACs can receive unlimited contributions but can’t donate directly to candidates and are forbidden from coordinating spending with the candidates they support.

In the most recent quarter, Weiser led the pair in contributions to his campaign committee, with about $814,000 in receipts to Bennet’s roughly $776,000. Bennet spent almost exactly as much as he brought in during the period, while Weiser’s expenditures totaled just over $300,000.

Weiser, who launched his campaign at the beginning of last year, has brought in $4.5 million over the stretch. Bennet has just under $3.5 million in total donations since joining the primary in April.

Weiser’s haul for the year sets a record for the most money raised by a Colorado gubernatorial candidate who didn’t self-fund their campaign in the year before an election.

Rocky Mountain Way reported raising just under $1.4 million for the quarter, with more than half of that sum coming from a single $750,000 contribution from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, bringing his total contribution to Bennet’s super PAC to $1.25 million. The PAC also received $150,000 from Brighter Future for Colorado, a nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors, bringing its total for the year to $700,000.

Weiser’s super PAC raised just under $350,000 in the three-month period, including $50,000 donations from Thomas Ray, who runs a private equity firm, and Arthur Reimers, a retired investor. Additionally, the PAC received $25,000 donations from prolific Colorado donors Merle Chambers, a former oil and gas CEO, and Blair Richardson, who runs a private equity and investment firm.

More than 20 Republicans are also running for the office, which hasn’t been won by a GOP candidate since 2002. The party’s leading candidates started the year with considerably less money in the bank than their potential Democratic opponents.

Colorado Springs-based ministry leader Victor Marx made a splash in his first quarter in the race, raising just under $620,000, including a $24,000 donation to his own campaign from Marx and his wife. After spending $271,000, he finished the year with almost $350,000 on hand.

Marx’s fundraising surpassed the other Republican candidate who posted six figures for the quarter, Republican state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, a former congressional nominee. Kirkmeyer brought in about $192,000 over the period, spent a little over $108,000 and had almost $273,000 in the bank. Her total contributions since declaring her candidacy in September were nearly $382,000.

The other major Republican candidates trailed. State Rep. Scott Bottoms, R-Colorado Springs, raised almost $38,000 for the quarter and had just over $9,000 on hand at the end of the year after spending just over $45,000. Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell raised a hair over $6,000, spent almost $10,000 and finished with nearly $25,000 in the bank.

The two GOP candidates who withdrew from their party’s gubernatorial primary earlier this month didn’t fare much better in the last quarter. Former U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez, who left the Republican Party to run as an independent, raised a little over $9,000 in the quarter and finished with $5,000 and change on hand. State Sen. Mark Baisley, R-Woodland Park, jumped to the U.S. Senate primary after bringing in less than $5,000 for the quarter and reporting $657 in the bank at the end of the year.

Polis, a former five-term congressman from Boulder, won election in 2018 and was reelected four years later after defeating GOP nominee Heidi Ganahl, a former University of Colorado regent-at-large and the last Republican to hold statewide office in Colorado, by nearly 20 points.

The major parties pick their nominees for statewide office in Colorado’s June primary. Candidates can make the ballot via the assembly process, which kicks off with precinct caucuses in the first week of March, or by petitioning onto the ballot with signatures.