“Hi everybody. There seems to be a lot of questions out there regarding some issues around my campaign as of late and I’d like to get them cleared up right away so we can move on to victory on November Second.”

He wasn’t lying about being a secret agent in Kansas. He was involved in an investigation into a gambling ring and was fired as a result. He was a newcomer to politics and innocently bungled campaign finances. “I don’t know why the contribution wasn’t logged correctly. Our treasurer hasn’t been with us for eight months.” He has never embellished his business success. “I have never claimed to be a Fortune 500 CEO. I’ve never claimed to be a millionaire. I’m just an average middle-class guy who has owned and helped in small businesses and rose up from poverty to have a lifestyle that I’m proud of right now.”

Maes’s grassroots supporters may respond positively to the video. Maes doesn’t come off like a politician. His detractors may add that he doesn’t come off like a governor, either.

Cals to his offices for comment weren’t immediately returned.

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It’s really pretty simple, according to Colorado College political science professor Bob Loevy: “I think we have to keep in mind that in order to get elected, candidates have to do things that are notable, and they have to plead their case.”

“When people don’t have much of a record, they tend to inflate it,” he said. “Usually there is a grain of truth to what they are saying. They take a minor event and turn it into a major event. Then, their candidacy takes off or they win a major nomination and people start going through their record and asking questions. Did he really do this?

“That’s what happened here. You take an inexperienced person, someone never elected to office before, and you put them in this position and this is almost what you would expect. Someone who is more experienced is going to know that everything they say and do is going to be checked for accuracy,” Loevy said.

“Shy people do not make good politicians. Every politician knows you have to serve your constituents and then tell them about it, and they know the most important part of that is telling them about it. Well, if you don’t have much to tell, you tend to inflate what you do have.”

Loevy has been teaching political science since at CC since 1968 and is the author of numerous books on politics and government.

Maes’ website (pdf) continues to portray him as perhaps more accomplished than he is. In July, the Colorado Independent pointed out to Maes that his official campaign resume shows him as currently employed as a “partner and vice president” at Advantage Credit in Fargo, ND. When we called Advantage Credit, several people at the firm said they had never heard of Maes. He told us then that he had left the company in early 2009 to run for governor but had never updated his resume.

If he doesn’t update his resume when he is looking for a new job (governor!!), and he doesn’t update it when the inaccuracy is pointed out, when will he?

Today’s argument is the final phase in a longtime dispute with Kansas over water from the Arkansas River and has a potential price tag for Colorado of $9.2 million. As the Colorado Springs Gazette reports, in 1985 Colorado lost the lawsuit to Kansas after the courts ruled that Colorado was illegally pumping water in violation of the Arkansas River Compact. Now Kansas wants Colorado to pay another $9.2 million in legal costs from that lawsuit.

This weekend Suthers described his anticipation of arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court in a television interview with his hometown station, KKTV in Colorado Springs. In all, Suthers expects he’ll have only minutes to make his case.

“What happens in an argument like this, you get about a sentence into it and then the court starts asking you questions, and that takes up your whole half-hour,” said Suthers.