Common Sense pretty common after all

By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 03:19 p.m., December 4, 2007
Updated 04:00 p.m., December 4, 2007

Humorist Will Rogers said "Common sense ain't all that common," but it turns out Common Sense is pretty popular in Colorado.

Republican Patrick Davis, of Colorado Springs, found that out when he tried to name the group he heads "Common Sense Colorado."

The organization — accused by Democrats of being a "shadowy" group — is running what Davis called "educational" ads. The spots paint an unflattering picture of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall.

Udall, whose campaign says the ads are false and misleading, faces Republican Bob Schaffer in the 2008 race.

Davis said he wanted to buy the "Common Sense Colorado" domain but got a shock when he found out who the owner is: None other than Bob Schaffer.

Under the federal tax rules that regulate Davis' group, he's not allowed to have contact with any candidate or political party so Davis couldn't even make Schaffer an offer.

Davis ended up calling his group "Common Sense Issues Inc." or CSI.

Schaffer said that several years ago he registered a number of domain names with the words "common sense." They include CommonSenseColorado.org and CommonSenseColorado.net.

At one point, someone from an Eastern state called and left a message, saying he wanted to buy the domain names. Schaffer said he didn't even bother to return the call.

"'Common sense' is a word that becomes pricey real estate at election time, I suppose," Schaffer said, with a laugh.

Schaffer said he knew nothing about the ads, which began airing Friday.

But a national Democratic group today cried foul, questioning whether there was illegal coordination between CSI, Schaffer's campaign and the Colorado Republican Party.

Davis was the political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2004. The group was involved in defeating Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota that year. Daschle's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, is now the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.

And Schaffer's political director, Walt Klein, worked with Wadhams on Republican Wayne Allard's two senatorial campaigns.

"Bob Schaffer has been ducking questions on tough issues for months, and now we know why – because he may be relying on a shadowy interest group to do his dirty work for him," Matthew Miller, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a news release.

Wadhams last week said he knew nothing about the ads.

Davis' nonprofit group is a registered with the IRS as a 501(c)4.

Unlike the better known "527" political groups — named after the section of the tax code that regulates them — CSI does not have to reveal its financial transactions, including donors and expenses.

Unlike 527s, Common Sense Issues cannot advocate the election or defeat of any particular candidate, but can only "educate" the voters.

But it's clear that the ads Common Sense Issues is running on network TV in Grand Junction and Colorado Springs and on cable networks in Denver are designed to leave a negative impression of Udall.

The ads attack Udall for his stance on drilling for offshore oil near Cuba and a proposed Department of Peace.

• December 5, 2007

  11:39 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  DougH writes:

  Patrick Davis, the executive director for Common Sense Issues has been busy these days. Not only in Colorado but in Iowa where his group was doing push poll calls for Mike Huckabee.
  Only differences is that Huckabee had the integrity to ask Davis to stop his negative campaigning. Is it possible the Bob Schaffer will show the same integrity here in Colorado ?