Tag: Attack Ads

A few weeks ago I predicted John McCain's comment about "renegotiating" the Colorado River Compact would show up in paid media ads against him from Barack Obama. My crystal ball didn't let me down. Yesterday Obama put up a radio ad featuring the quote, along with a line from Senator Ken Salazar about how it's a "terrible idea." In my experience presidential campaigns rarely cut ads specific to just one state. For Obama to put together an ad that will, I expect, only run in very specific parts of this one state, well, welcome to life in the top battleground of 2008.

Read more of Jeff's commentaries: • By the numbers: Obama's got the edge • McCain's Southern-style 'mission accomplished' • Debate tips from Karl Rove, earpiece not included

A compilation of attacks on Sarah Palin's record make up a new ad set to run in Colorado and other battleground states prior to the vice presidential debate Thursday. For Coloradans already bombarded with attack ads this one's a bit different — schmaltzy music, goofy 80's-style heartbeat graphics and not a ominous voice to be heard. Oh, and there's that grainy black and white image of John McCain with arm outstretched in a death pall pose over a chirpy soundtrack of "one heartbeat away." Yipes!

Criminal complaints. Accusations of lying and public smears. Nasty TV and radio attack ads. It's election season in Colorado's 4th Congressional District, and this year's race -- much like those of the past -- has not proven healthy for the faint of heart. But this year's race between three-term incumbent Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and Democrat Betsy Markey has a new dimension: Despite voter registration numbers that favor Republicans by 13 percent, recent polls indicated Markey, a never-before-elected former Senate staffer, stands a clear chance of yanking Musgrave's seat out from under her.

Three weeks after The Colorado Independent launched a series of reports detailing the shadowy group Western Skies Coalition, the watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch has filed an IRS complaint asking for an immediate investigation into whether Western Skies, along with three other 501(c)4 nonprofits, are truly engaged in “social welfare” activities — or if their activities are actually more akin to hard core politicking.

Last week, a TV ad criticizing anti-affirmative action guru Ward Connerly appeared in Colorado and Nebraska.

In a negative race that just won't quit, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave filed a complaint with the Larimer County District Attorney last week alleging her Democratic opponent Betsy Markey knowingly made false statements about her in a recent television advertisement. In Musgrave's complaint, the three-term Republican from Fort Morgan said Markey's recent television ad that claimed Musgrave made votes to allow lobbyists to "wine and dine" her and sponsored legislation to reduce capital gains taxes on precious metals which would have directly benefited her Musgrave's husband Steve.

In spite of what oil and gas companies are saying, a 'yes' vote on Amendment 58 won't mean higher prices at the gas pump. According to a report issued yesterday by the Bell Policy Center, an economic research organization in Denver, gas prices are not directly determined by severance tax rates. Amendment 58 seeks to eliminate a tax benefit historically handed to the oil and gas industries in Colorado in order to recoup $300 million per year for schools, transportation and natural resource projects.

Television ads supporting Amendment 47, the “right-to-work” ballot question, show still images of fire fighters and cops, while asking viewers to give workers in Colorado “more freedom.”

Barack Obama is on the radio in Colorado with an ad mocking John McCain for his Iraq policies, referencing the construction of a luxurious ferris wheel "with air-conditioned cars" in Baghdad, according to Politico's Ben Smith. "John McCain wants America to keep spending $10 billion a month in Iraq when we should be rebuilding America," the ad's announcer says over a lilting carnival calliope tune.

The mud just keeps getting thicker in Colorado's 4th Congressional District. The campaign of Democrat Betsy Markey filed a complaint with the Larimer County District Attorney's office on Sept. 17 over what Markey claims are knowingly false television advertisements aired by her political opponent Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave. Under Colorado law, it is illegal to knowingly make false statements about an opponent in a political campaign. If the Larimer County District Attorney Larry Abrahamson accepts the complaint it will be forwarded to a six-member, bipartisan commission established by the Colorado District Attorney who will investigate what wrong-doing, if any, occurred.