First attack ad in 2nd District race aims at Polis
By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Originally published 06:27 p.m., July 22, 2008
Updated 11:53 p.m., July 22, 2008
Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky
Congressional candidate Jared Polis appears in a recent debate in Boulder with rivals Will Shafroth and Joan Fitz-Gerald.
A former top union official is behind the first attack ad in the contentious 2nd Congressional District race, a TV spot slamming candidate Jared Polis' record on education.
The ad criticizes Polis - a former state Board of Education member - on several counts, from supporting "a radical school voucher bill" to wanting to reform, rather than end, President Bush's "disastrous" No Child Left Behind Act.
"Call Jared Polis . . . tell him to fix his education ideas," a narrator says in the ad.
Polis' campaign on Tuesday claimed a specific oil and gas interest was behind the ad and then sent out a clarification after being notified by the Rocky Mountain News about the union's role.
The campaign planned to "vigorously respond" to the attacks, said Robert Becker, Polis' campaign manager.
The spot, which began airing Monday, signals the airwaves will grow increasingly nasty between now and the Aug. 12 election. Polis, Joan Fitz-Gerald and Will Shafroth are running for the Democratic nomination.
The group behind the TV ad is Colorado Counts, headed by Steve Adams, former president of the Colorado AFL-CIO. A variety of unions bankrolled the $155,000 ad buy.
Fitz-Gerald is backed by several unions, including the AFL-CIO and the Colorado Education Association. Fitz-
Gerald's campaign manager, Mary Alice Mandarich, said she knew nothing about the ad.
Adams said Colorado Counts' goal is to "expose" Polis' education record. "This has nothing do with oil and gas," he said.
Becker said he "followed the paper trail" to find out who was behind the ad.
Secretary of state records show that Colorado Counts' address is the same as the lobbying firm Corporate Advocates. Jep Seman, the governmental affairs director for the firm, has energy clients, sits on the board of the Colorado Petroleum Association and has donated $1,250 to Fitz-Gerald, Becker said in a press release.
Seman and Adams said their offices happen to be on the same floor in an office building at 1660 Lincoln St. Seman said neither he nor his company had anything to do with the commercial.
"Jared did just about as good of job researching this ad as he did researching Amendment 41," Seman said, referring to a flawed ethics measure Polis bankrolled.
bartels@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5327
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July 22, 2008
7:15 p.m.
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oceanview78382 writes:
I'm not really fond of unions but school vouchers kill a community. "NO child left behind" has been a disaster
July 22, 2008
8:20 p.m.
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LoFat writes:
Johnny cannot read, write or do basic arithmetic. Johnny is disruptive when he bothers to show up for class. A recent study has determined that today's graduating high school students are incapable of adapting to college life, a job, or the real world. They are given academic credit in some areas of the State for "cup stacking". Their opinions of themselves is heightened beyond all realistic expectations. Today's graduates start in the mail room on Monday and want to sue somebody if they are not an executive vice-president by Friday.
Of course, if they were actually educated they would be Republicans and not Socialist Democrats. They would be able to read and understand what bills in the Legislature actually meant and could do the math to realize what Universal Health Care and welfare subsidy really costs.
Yep, Bush wants a little accountability in the educational system to reform this sad situation but the NEA and their UNIONS fight to maintain the status-quo. A whole lot of CYA on the Ed systems part perhaps?
What we really need to do is get rid of all the Ward Churchills in the system, fire all underperforming or non-performing administrators and teachers and start fresh.
July 22, 2008
9:31 p.m.
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no_s____sherlock writes:
First we need to establish a test for parenthood!
July 23, 2008
12:50 p.m.
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redwhiteandBLUE writes:
Didn't you know he's 'a doer'? LOL!
July 25, 2008
11:16 p.m.
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jwwriter writes:
I would like to think that unions do not necessarily want to keep the status quo, if true and workable educational reform were made available to them. That "a variety of unions bankrolled the $155,000 ad buy" is a disturbing revelation, if indeed some of those unions had any desire at all to truly reform our public education system.
When you consider that Jared Polis is the only CD2 candidate who knows how to change education in technologically innovative ways, when we all know that such change is needed for students to remain competitive in today's economy, it simply makes no sense at all for educational advocates to support any other candidate.