Salida Gunshop Podcast // Clip // Amendment 83 // Nov 3, 2026 Ballot

Who Is Really Paying to Fight Amendment 83?

Same groups, new name, and a checkbook that lives a long way from Colorado.

Watch the full conversation

Every campaign tells two stories: the one on its yard signs and the one in its bank records. Midway through our conversation with San Juan Mountains elk outfitter Jenny Burbey, one of our hosts shares what turned up after digging into who is bankrolling the campaign against Amendment 83. It takes about 24 seconds, and it is worth every one of them.

What’s said

“Same groups, just money from out of state.”

One of our hosts VIDEO 2:16

Jenny, who has spent years at the table where Colorado wildlife policy gets hashed out, doesn’t miss a beat: “Same, same group, slightly different captain of the week.” Then comes the number. In the host’s words, “60% of the money that’s being used to fight it is coming from out of state.”

We checked the receipts

Colorado makes every issue committee report its donors to the Secretary of State, so we pulled the records ourselves TRACER. The best-funded committee registered against 83 calls itself Colorado Hunters and Anglers for Sensible Wildlife Conservation. Through Oct. 14, 2026, it reported $176,689 in itemized contributions. About 61 percent of that, $108,434, came from contributors with out-of-state addresses, and nearly all of it, $108,254, came from one group: the Center for a Humane Economy in Bethesda, Maryland TRACER DATA.

The name says hunters and anglers. The checkbook says Maryland. For the biggest committee fighting 83, the 60 percent in the clip holds up.

Why it matters if you’re new to 83

Amendment 83 would put the right to hunt and fish in the Colorado Constitution and make hunting and fishing the preferred way to manage fish and wildlife populations. The state keeps its power to regulate for sound science, public safety, and to protect future hunting and fishing BLUE BOOK. As a constitutional amendment, it needs 55 percent of the vote to pass BLUE BOOK.

Think about who actually lives with these decisions: the ranch family counting calves, the outfitter like Jenny who has guided elk hunters in the San Juans for nearly 40 years, the parents filling a freezer so they know exactly what feeds their kids. Those are the people who should steer Colorado’s wildlife future, not whoever can wire the most money from across the country.

Hear Jenny’s full story in What Colorado’s First Gentleman Told an Elk Outfitter at the Capitol, get the basics in our Amendment 83 explainer, and see a hunter’s view in Dan Gates on Amendment 83. Heard a wild claim about the measure? Start with our machine gun fact-check.

How to vote

• Mail ballots must be received by 7pm MT on Tuesday, Nov 3, 2026.
• Find a drop box or voter center at GoVoteColorado.gov, run by the Colorado Secretary of State.

Campaign finance figures are itemized contributions, including in-kind, reported to the Colorado Secretary of State’s TRACER system by Colorado Hunters and Anglers for Sensible Wildlife Conservation (committee ID 20265052338) in filings through Oct. 19, 2026, covering contributions through Oct. 14, 2026. Later reports may change the totals. Quotes are from the episode; the timestamp links to that moment.