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Mailer turns House District 45 race into tussle

By Ed Sealover, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 8, 2008 at 7:16 p.m.
Updated August 8, 2008 at 7:16 p.m.

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The Republican primary in House District 45 has become a tussle involving a candidate, a veteran politician and a builders group behind a negative mailer.

Former Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Carole Murray and former Teller County GOP Chairman Mark Sievers are competing to replace Republican Rep. Victor Mitchell, who is not seeking re-election. The GOP-heavy district includes southern Douglas County and all of Teller County.

Sievers won 58 percent of the vote at March's district assembly. The race was proceeding quietly until last week, when residents got mailers calling Sievers a "liberal pro-choice trial lawyer."

They were sent out by the political arm of the Colorado Association of Home Builders, and the description of Sievers came from Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs.

McElhany points to Sievers' web site as justification for his remark. The web site says Sievers is against abortion except in cases of rape, incest and the "health of the mother", a term that McElhany said could open the doors for all cases.

McElhany and Sievers have clashed before. Sievers last year sent out e-mails that McElhany said criticized him for making unflattering remarks about trial lawyers during a debate on a construction defects bill.

Sievers, 54, said he was shocked at McElhany's description of him. He said he worked most of his legal career as a general counsel for corporations, not as a trial attorney. And he considers himself pro-life.

He also questions why a home builders' group would care about his stance on abortion.

Steve Randolph, mayor of Woodland Park and past president of the Teller County Home Builders Association, called the mailer "slanderous" in an e-mail and recommended that the county group end its membership with the state association.

"Most of the e-mails I get are people who are extraordinarily angry at the negative campaigning," said Sievers, who operates a law practice outside of Cripple Creek. "I don't know whether it did me more good than harm."

Murray, the legislative liaison for the Douglas County School District, also blasted the mailings in an interview, saying they lacked integrity.

She said her campaign is focused on conservative principles. Murray, 59, notes both her support for her traditional family values and her history of making the clerk and recorder's office more efficient.

The race also poses an interesting matchup between the two parts of the geographically and economically diverse district. Sievers is looking to become the first legislator elected from Teller County since 1930.