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Paccione loses ad funds

Dem committee pulls big chunk of ad time for 4th CD candidate

Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 12, 2006 at midnight

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The campaign of 4th Congressional District hopeful Angie Paccione took a hit Wednesday when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pulled a significant chunk of advertising time earmarked for her support.

That news comes on the heels of a Denver Post poll showing Paccione trailing GOP incumbent Marilyn Musgrave by 10 points. "If it's not the final nail in the coffin, then it's pretty darn close," said Musgrave campaign spokesman Shaun Kenney.

The DCCC on Wednesday canceled "a couple hundred thousand" dollars' worth of Paccione ads, which had been planned for the weeks of Oct. 24 and Oct. 31, according to a CBS 4 staffer who asked not to be named.

"It was not a complete and total cancel," the employee said. "It was a reduction - they probably canceled half their money."

John Curry, general sales manager at Denver's KMGH Channel 7, also confirmed a cancellation of a DCCC ad buy for Paccione, but would not discuss details.

Patti Dennis, 9News vice president of news, said late Wednesday, "The two people who would know (about a canceled ad buy at her station) are on an airplane," and she was unable to confirm the report.

In the first week of August, the Paccione campaign had touted a report appearing in The Hill, a political newspaper in Washington consulted by political insiders, stating that the DCCC had reserved $630,000 of television advertising to target Musgrave, who is bidding for her third two-year term in Congress.

But on Wednesday, the national committee was not talking.

"We do not comment on the record on spending," said DCCC spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield. "I'm afraid that's all I can give you on that front."

Paccione campaign spokesman James Thompson issued a statement which, while pointing out that individual campaigns aren't privy to the DCCC's plans, suggested the national committee's strategy could remain fluid - particularly if the National Republican Congressional Campaign doesn't spend significantly in Colorado's 7th Congressional District, where GOP candidate Rick O'Donnell is seen as trailing Democrat Ed Perlmutter.