NICHOLAS RICCARDI 

DENVER (AP) -- Conservative groups pushing for a convention of the states as a way to amend the U.S. Constitution have been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in state legislative primaries to elect Republican lawmakers sympathetic to their cause.

Much of the money comes from groups that do not have to disclose their donors, masking the identity of who is funding the push to change the Constitution.

Their goals are vague and include limiting the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and imposing fiscal restraints.

No amendment to the Constitution has ever been done through a state convention.