The latest print edition of National Review includes an enlightening article about the campaign strategy Democrats used to turn Colorado from red to blue in a few short years.

To summarize, a small group of wealthy donors largely bypassed the Democratic Party apparatus (largely because of campaign finance restrictions) and sank a ton of money into 527s, while also helping to coordinate concerted election-focused campaigns from “traditional pro-Democratic groups” (trial lawyers, unions, abortion-rights advocates, environmentalists).

Lest you think this issue is not important to the future of the Tar Heel State, the article also discusses a 2008 presentation about a “quiet little project called the Committee on States”:

In the past 30 months, the Democracy Alliance’s donors have put over $110 million into 30 state-level groups. “There are a bunch of states,” [founder Rob] Stein continued, “where over the next couple of years a lot of development is going to happen.” Later in the presentation, [lawyer Frank] Smith named a few: Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.?