Markey/Gardner Debate A War Over Rival TV Ads
Last night’s CD-4 debate in Loveland between Betsy Markey and Cory Gardner was an unusually boisterous affair, surely a sign of the polarized political landscape in the Age of Obama (or the Age of the Tea Party). The audience was filled with more ideological partisans than undecided voters. In fact, barely a single undecided voter was in attendance.
As a result, the entire event was marked more by political theater than a real exchange of wits. So it is not surprising then that the most noteworthy exchanges between Betsy Markey and Cory Gardner was over a pair of new television attack ads the two candidates are airing against each other.
The first was a recent ad by the Markey campaign accusing Gardner of hypocrisy over wanting to raise taxes during a recession. It then goes on to suggest that he did just that when he sponsored HB10-1158, a bill that purports to allow wind rights to be separated from the real property it blows across and bought and sold just like mineral rights.
Cory Gardner’s Weak Defense on Autism Vote
Last week, EMILY’s List announced that it was launching a $300,000 anti-Cory Gardner ad campaign in Colorado’s CD-4 race. Striking similar themes in Gardner’s voting record that I have enumerated in this blog—namely that Gardner has a horrible track-record on women’s issues—the EMILY’s List campaign is running this ad, which features Kate Dran and her autistic son as she discusses the various obstacles her family has faced because of her health insurance company’s refusal to cover treatment of her son’s autism:
The ad also highlights Gardner’s 2009 ‘no’ vote on HB 09-244, a state bill that requires health insurance companies in the state to cover treatment for autism spectrum disorders. The bill ultimately passed the house with over a 2/3 majority and was signed into law by Governor Ritter.
Amendment 62 and Cory Gardner’s Assault on Women’s Rights
Republican Senate candidate, Ken Buck, has garnered a great deal of state and national media attention for his unusually rigid view of what rights a woman has to an abortion. His contention that even in instances of rape and incest, abortion is still morally repugnant and should not recognized as legally permissible, has even been fodder for campaign ads against the Weld county district attorney.
With all of this negative attention focused on Buck, it has gone largely unnoticed that CD-4 Republican Congressional candidate, Cory Gardner, holds similar views on abortion and women’s rights more broadly defined. In fact, where they do differ, Gardner’s pro-life position on abortion is even more extreme than Buck’s.
Last week, in an interview in the Coloradoan, Gardner, who is running against Betsy Markey, elaborated on his pro-life views and suggested that he makes no exceptions. When asked if he would allow exceptions for rape, incest, or in instances where the mother’s life was in danger, he simply answered, “I’m pro-life, and I believe abortion in wrong.”
The Best Defense is a Good Offensive: Betsy Markey Goes On the Attack.
Betsy Markey is finally going on the offensive against her Republican opponent, Cory Gardner. According to the Coloradoan, Markey’s first attack ad of the 2010 election cycle seeks to “tap into voter frustration with government by calling Republican opponent Cory Gardner a ‘career politician.’”
"Taxpayers have already had enough, so Colorado can't afford a career politician like Cory Gardner in Congress. Gardner skipped legislative votes to attend Washington fundraisers, but took his taxpayer funded salary anyway," the ad says.
For readers of this blog, the ad treads on familiar territory. It echoes many of the attacks I, a not-so-humble political writer/policy wonk, have leveled against Gardner. During the Republican primary in March, I criticized Gardner’s lack-luster performance in a debate in Loveland by suggesting he was out of step with the populist anger toward not just Democrats, but established elites. I wrote:
Markey Must Go on the Offense Against Gardner to Win Re-Election
Bob Moore at the Fort Collins Coloradoan writes:
Rep. Betsy Markey will need to go on the offensive against Republican Cory Gardner - and soon - if she hopes to win a second term, two Colorado State University political scientists said after a poll by a GOP-affiliated group showed the challenger with a comfortable lead.
"She does not have to hit him all by herself, assuming that there is outside help from the (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) or other groups, but she does have to hit him," CSU political science Chairman Bob Duffy said.
"And I think those hits have to start coming now, before the narrative takes hold that Gardner is a shoo-in."
Gardner, a state representative from Yuma, leads Markey 50-39 percent, according to a poll of 400 likely 4th Congressional District voters conducted Aug. 23-26 and Aug. 28 for the American Action Forum, which is headed by former Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. John McCain's economic adviser in the 2008 presidential campaign. Margin of error for the survey, the results of which were released late Wednesday, is listed at plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
My Interview With Tom Lucero
Over the last several weeks, both the local and national media have been aflutter over the tough re-election race faced by Betsy Markey in Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District. For local pundits and political insiders, however, that comes as little surprise because most knew that even before Markey began her first-term, she was occupying a seat that has been Republican for well over thirty years.
Indeed, even before she was sworn into office, Berthoud Republican, Tom Lucero, who is finishing his second term on the CU Board of Regents, declared his intention to challenge Ms. Markey. Since declaring his candidacy, however, his campaign has been plagued by problems, including staff shakeups and poor name recognition, weak fundraising numbers, as well as a strong primary challenge from Yuma Republican, Cory Gardner, whose campaign appears to be an unstoppable freight train.
Dean Madere’s Elusive Republic: An Interview with a Political Outsider
For political observers, the Republican primary contest in Colorado’s Fourth Congressional district is a foregone conclusion. State representative Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is the run-away favorite to challenge incumbent Democrat Betsy Markey in November. Gardner carries the blessing of the national party as one of the RNC’s ‘Young Guns,’ a national organization designed for the top GOP challengers in the country, and he has been the presumptive favorite since he entered the race almost a year ago. In fact, Fort Collins City Councilman Diggs Brown, Gardner’s most competitive challenger, dropped out after finishing a distant second in a preference poll taken during the Republican caucuses on March 17th.
Not all of Gardner’s opponents have taken his impressive showing as a reason to quit, however. Dean Madere of Loveland has decided to continue with his insurgency campaign . Only entering the race last November, Madere’s candidacy is the product of the burgeoning 9-12 and Tea Party Movements in Northern Colorado, where he also draws most of his support. His campaign war-chest is so meager that he isn’t required to file a campaign financial report. Nevertheless, despite the diminutive size of his grassroots campaign, his supporters are motivated and passionate, and because of that, he still managed to register 11% in the preference poll done at the GOP caucuses in March.
Colorado's 4th Congressional District Wins the Full Fix Treatment
On Wednesday, Chris Cillizza of Washington Post's The Fix announced that the CD-4 congressional race between Betsy Markey and presumptive front-runner Cory Gardner won the most votes from its readers in a poll taken to decide which race deserved "the full Fix treatment" in light of the health care vote taken on Sunday.
Primary Colors: Story of a GOP Primary Debate
The image of Cory Gardner’s six by four foot campaign poster falling off the wall behind him during his closing remarks serves as a telling metaphor for the CD-4 Republican primary debate Thursday night: It capped the end of a lackluster performance by the Republican front-runner hoping to unseat Congresswoman Betsy Markey in the fall. Instead, the night belonged to the other three men on the stage: Diggs Brown, Tom Lucero, and Dean Madere.
Gardner’s focus-group-tested jokes, and polished demeanor fell flat, and his presence was overshadowed by the grit, energy, and passion of the other three GOP candidates who really seemed to connect with the most fervent elements of the Republican grassroots—the tea party and 9/12 group activists—who made up the core of the audience at Mountain View High School in Loveland.
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