To Think Mark Udall Once Made a Big Deal of Attacking His Opponent's Missed Votes...

This piece comes from deep in the archives. Mark Udall has had a hard time living up to the consequences of his very important missed vote that left the energy issue untouched while Americans continue to pay high prices at the pump. But once upon a time, when he first ran for Congress in 1998, he made his opponent's missed votes a centerpiece of his campaign (from the October 28, 1998, edition of the Boulder Daily Camera):

[Congressional candidate Bob] Greenlee said the ads are defamatory to his reputation and he is considering legal action against the Mark Udall for Congress Committee.

The ad accuses Greenlee of missing 800 votes as a city council member....

Greenlee responded Saturday that while it is possible he missed 800 votes as a city council member, those votes have accumulated over a period of 15 years. He said many of the votes the Udall campaign is referring to could have been on such matters as minutes and minor amendments. Greenlee said he has as good of a record or better than any other city council member.

Thanks to our current campaign finance laws, Mark Udall now has other groups to throw the slime at his opponent for him, so he doesn't have to account for the direct attacks on Bob Schaffer this time around. But just the reminder of how concerned he was 10 years ago about the issue of missed votes is kind of funny - since Udall's missed vote was much more crucial than the 800 votes to approve minutes and minor amendments for a city council combined.

Udall? ... Udall?

In a Sea of Troubles, Mark Udall Finds Good News in Jared Polis Primary Victory

Facing criticism about his fiscally irresponsible record, a broken promise, an unpopular energy record, a major flip-flop, and the painful prospect of more debates, Mark Udall had to be ready for some good news.

And he got it late last night. As reported from his hometown newspaper, the Boulder Daily Camera:

Internet entrepreneur Jared Polis, relying on a massive bankroll to fund his political ambitions, claimed victory Tuesday as the Democratic nominee in a hard-fought — and at times bitterly contested — race in the 2nd Congressional District.

Jared Polis ran to the Left in his political campaign and won, upholding the Mark Udall legacy. Polis is a virtual lock to win the general election. Too bad for Udall the state of Colorado as a whole isn't so much like his old Congressional District.

Rossputin: Schaffer is "Better and Smarter Candidate"

Prolific Colorado-based libertarian blogger Rossputin posted on his site a letter he wrote that also ran in the Boulder Daily Camera, highlighting important differences between former Rep. Bob Schaffer and liberal Rep. Mark Udall.

The following is the opening and conclusion of his letter:

While there’s no doubt that 2008 will be a difficult year for Republicans, Bob Schaffer has a big factor in his favor: He’s the better and smarter candidate, and the more you know him the more you like him. The same can’t be said for Udall, who isn’t a bad guy but who doesn’t impress you more over time.

Schaffer’s biggest electoral problem is that many voters don’t have the true picture of him. Udall’s problem is that we do.

Check out Rossputin's site to read the whole thing. It will be interesting to see how much the issue of candidate intellect and competence becomes an issue in this Senate race, but it's hard to disagree with Rossputin that the balance there tips in favor of Schaffer.

Some Candidates Run on the Union Label - Not Mark Udall

The campaign for Colorado's open US Senate seat changed tone this week now that the Mark Udall campaign has made the decision to run openly as a "Boulder Liberal."

The conventional wisdom, even among liberals and the left wing blogosphere, was that Mark Udall could not win in colorado while running as an openly left wing politician. To win, they thought, he had to run as a moderate.

One of the unintended consequences of our keeping a scoreboard is that once liberal blogs and the msm discover that we are keeping track of how they label Mark Udall, they uniformly drop the label. They do want Udall to be elected, but they are afraid that openly admitting that he is "liberal," let alone a "Boulder Liberal," would damage his chances to win.

Taylor West, a Mark Udall Campaign spokeswoman has given these blogs and the msm the green light to refer to Udall as a "Boulder Liberal" when she said to the Daily Camera:

the Udall campaign doesn't think the "Boulder liberal" tag will hurt Udall as voters across the state get to know him.

We think that she is wrong, but only time will tell. Henceforth this author will refer to Mark Udall as "self styled Boulder Liberal Mark Udall," and we will do it just that way. It should be fun.

Udall's Press Agent: Boulder Liberal Tag Won't Hurt

It seems that the Mark Udall campaign has resigned itself to Udall being labeled a "Boulder Liberal" and embraced the moniker. The Daily Camera reports that Taylor West, a spokeswoman for Mark Udall's campaign said:

the Udall campaign doesn't think the "Boulder liberal" tag will hurt Udall as voters across the state get to know him.

We happen to think that being a "Boulder Liberal" is farther to the left on the political spectrum than just plain liberal and are taking this opportunity to increment the "relaiably left wing" part of our scoreboard.

The Mark Udall is not a moderate scoreboard:
extremist 2
reliably left wing 11
liberal 30
moderate 0
conservative (chuckle)

We started this scoreboard when we noticed that liberal blogs and the msm were routinely calling Mark Udall a "liberal," "reliably left wing," and even "extremist." We do not count comments from conservative blogs and we didn't count a comment on a liberal show by a conservative politician. Those who would like to check our methodology can follow the bread crumbs backwards.

Long ago, we started using music titles to make it easier to find earlier posts and to differentiate scoreboard posts from other posts. Recently, Mark Udall admitted that in 1971 he had his automobile seized in a drug related arrest. Most states don't seize vehicles unless the amount of drugs involved suggests drug dealing. Mark Udall has been quite coy about what happened. An enquiring public wants to know. In that spirit, our future scoreboard entries will be titled Puff the Magic Dragon.

Political Commentary Through a Fun House Mirror

Newspapers match their readership or they won't survive. It is no surprise that The Gazette is somewhat conservative in its outlook given that it must sell papers in a conservative county.

Likewise the Boulder Daily Camera must be quite liberal or it will not survive. It comes as no surprise that its analysis of the Senate race tilts leftward.

They managed to find CSU political science professor John Straayer for some quotes that were very sloppy if someone wants an accurate analysis of the political climate in Colorado:

About Schaffer, he said:

"He's continually dogged by the image that began to be created when he was in the state Senate, and that's that he's close to the more right fringe of the party, particularly on social issues like abortion and gay marriage," Straayer said.

We have been carefully monitoring the campaign for six months. The msm and even the liberal blog political coverage never seems to mention any of these issues, nor does the Udall campaign. The big complaint from Udall supporters is that Schaffer hasn't given them any issue to latch on to, something Straayer leaves out. This makes us curious as to what campaign Straayer is watching.

Likewise, John Straayer dismisses the fact that Mark Udall's liberal allies and the msm routinely describe him as liberal, reliably left wing, and even extremist. Look at the first comment at the bottom of the Daily Camera article for another example of how far out of touch Straayer is:

Mark! Mark! Mark! Go Mark [ Udall ]! Boulder's Best deserves the upgrade from Congressman to Senator. The rest of Colorado will see that being a "Boulder Liberal" can be good for all. Mark is a "Coloradan's Coloradan."

Last summer, the political buzz was that Colorado would be an easy pick up for Udall and the Democrats. As poll after poll shows the race to be a dead heat, most knowledgeable observers are rating Colorado as a toss-up. Once again, John Straayer is in his own little world:

Straayer said Udall should be considered the favorite to win the race.

The Daily Camera appears to have reported Straayer's over all analysis of the Colorado political scene without giving him a direct quote:

Straayer and other political observers say there's ample reason to think Colorado, traditionally a strong Republican state, will be much more rewarding territory for the Democratic candidate this year. Recent history has been good to donkeys, starting with Salazar's victory in 2004, followed by Democrats winning control of both chambers of the state Legislature for the first time in four decades. In 2006, Denver prosecutor Bill Ritter -- a pro-life Democrat -- won the race for the governor's office.

What John Straayer leaves out is the excessively abusive gerrymandering that allowed Republican candidates to aggregate the most statewide votes in legislative contests but elect only 40% of the legislature.

He also ignores the Republican infighting that handed Ken Salazar and Bill Ritter their elections, infighting that seems to have subsided.

Straayer might also have mentioned that the Denver Post appears to have soured some what on the Democrats in general and Bill Ritter in particular, which will negatively impact the ability of leftist candidates to pretend to be centrists.

If John Straayer wants to have some credibility, he would do well to read, consider, and answer our September essay "why the left wing prognosticators are wrong." The left wing prognosticators have turned out to be wrong, realized that they are wrong, and modified their positions, all except for Straayer.

All in all, John Straayer comes across in this piece as a prognosticator operating in a fun house whose mirrors distort reality to the point that his comments cannot be trusted by either side.

Boulder Daily Camera Not Happy

The Boulder Daily Camera editorial board came out against the "Foot on Throat" campaign proposed to, if not promised by Tim Gill and Pat Stryker:

Democrat Mark Udall and Republican Bob Schaffer are running for the U.S. Senate and are poles apart on policy, but share some common ground. They've amassed years of public service, and they both seem to hew to their principles.

Honorable civic service deserves some respect, regardless of how we might differ from an individual candidate philosophically. Bear that in mind this election season, because the race is bound to get ugly

The funniest quote was this:

Colorado Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams told the News that the Dems were planning "character assassination," from which, we are supposed to believe, he recoiled. Please. Wadhams' middle name is "scurrilous innuendo."

The next time we see Dick Wadhams, we will try to remember to ask him if that really is his middle name, lol.

Meanwhile, we think it speaks to Mark Udall's character that he hasn't said a word about this kind of tactic.

Media Matters Flakes Out Again

I am a retired Army Officer. I spent three years teaching ROTC. I taught college sophomores. I am outraged at a Media Matters article castigating Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman for not recognizing "Jared Polis College ROTC service." They were commenting on this Daily Camera story.

In my day, the ROTC classes at the freshman and sophmore level were just that, classes. There was no military obligation. Students weren't issued uniforms. Other than an awards ceremony that recognized academic achievement, freshmen and sophomore students didn't stand in formation. No one considers a student who attends these classes to have "served" their country.

In the early 1980's, when I taught, Military Science instructors were under pressure not to flunk students who signed up for the course and didn't show up for classes. I gave a student an A who never showed her face in class. I found myself having to provide the instruction to her privately when she discovered that I would be flunking her.

To have anyone equate this lax environment with real military service as Media Matters has done is offensive. If it is allowed to stand, ROTC detachments will be overrun with future politicians who cynically want to have a military service box checked without any fear of being put in harms way.

This isn't intended to be a slap at Jared Polis. It is unlikely that he thought about being a politician at the time he was taking ROTC. Life's circumstances change in unforseen ways, and they have changed in good ways for him. We don't want to accuse him of being a cynic at 18.

At the same time, we who have served would dishonor ourselves to allow Media Matters to make their comments without challenge.

Jared Polis isn't helped by this kind of mindless carping. Silverman and Caplis aren't damaged, either. The same cannot be said for Media Matters.

Money Race Even, Rules aren't.

The Boulder Daily Camera is reporting that, discounting the almost $1.2 million that Mark Udall transferred into his senate race from his congressional race coffers, both men have about the same amount of money on hand.

Mark Udall took advantage of a designed campaign finance law quirk that allows a sitting congressman to raise funds for a senate race before his official announcement while his opponent cannot. Thus, Udall had an almost 15 month head start in fund raising. Not coincidentially, Udall voted himself this advantage.

We have to chuckle at another Mark Udall lie:

"This is just another indication of the deep support Mark [ Udall ] has earned among Colorado's working families all across the state -- and we didn't have to sneak behind closed doors to embrace a president who is totally out of step with Colorado voters to do it," [ Mike ] Melanson said.

Mark Udall went to Daily Kos in California to raise funds. While Kos is in step with the folks in Boulder, there is no possibility that either Mark Udall or Mike Melanson will claim that he is in step with Colorado values.

The reason Mark Udall is being so obstinate about refusing to clean up the pine bark beetle mess is that he is getting so much money from the Sierra Club and its allies. Time will tell if the voters will decide they like their forests brown, dead, and burned as Mark Udall's major funders do. Who is raising funds from people who are out of step with Colorado? We think it is Mark Udall.

Will Voters Remember At The Polls?

In ten months the voters will be going to the polls. It will be interesting to see if they can connect the dots between what Mark Udall and Bill Ritter have been doing and how it impacts their daily quality of life.

Take food prices. They are going up sharply. The Boulder Camera reports on food price inflation without identifying Mark Udall, Bill Ritter, or the Sierra Club as in any way responsible:

In the western United States, the costs were even higher. With a recorded 6.4 percent gain in December 2007 and a 4.7 percent increase for the full year, the region, which includes Colorado, boasted the largest increases among the four U.S. Census areas for those periods...

One of the major underlying factors is the rising cost of fuel. The energy needed to produce, transfer and store food items is coming at a bigger price tag, he says.

"At the same time, some of the raw product costs -- particularly for the costs of manufacturing, wholesale ingredient prices -- were up substantially," he says. "The retail end of it kind of held the line as much as they could."

And then there's the demand for ethanol.

"You've got these government mandates that we're supposed to be producing so much corn," said Jeff Thredgold, a regional economist for Vectra Bank Colorado. "What it has done is push corn prices dramatically higher, which has an impact."

The higher prices of corn, a key ingredient in feed and a variety of foods, have carried forward to products such as tortillas, cornbread, beef and poultry.

Democrats count on the votes of people who live on a fixed income. That voting block is eventually going to get wise to the fact that Mark Udall and Bill Ritter are paying their extreme environmentalist agenda on the backs of the poor through higher food and fuel prices, higher property taxes, and higher utility bills. Will they remember at the polls?

Fund Raiser

The Boulder Daily Camera reminds us:

On the Republican side, President Bush is scheduled to attend a $5,000-a-couple fundraising event Thursday at a private Cherry Hills Village home on behalf of Bob Schaffer, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, for the U.S. Senate.

Up On One Foot And Spinning

After this author called for Bob Schaffer to withdraw from the race, we wanted to see if Ben had taken our writing priveledges away.

Foolish individual that he is, he hasn't done so yet.

One of David Sirota's colleagues once described him as trying to gain attention by standing on one foot and spinning. We went one better.

Since it works for David, we are going to give it a try with the following:

Hey Denver Post: Are you going to write about Mark Udall's admission on Thrusday that he was a pot smoker?

Hey Rocky Mountain News: Since when is it not news that sitting US Congressman Mark Udall had his automobile confiscated by the cops as a 20 something for ... carrying a lot of marijanua in the back seat (or whatever)

Hey Gazette: Were you aware that there is a US Senate race in Colorado this year and Mark Udall, the guy whose staff tried to send Caroline Bninski to jail for a year, got kid glove treatment when he was caught with pot?

Hey Boulder Camera we know that you like your pot but why the Silence on your favorite son Mark Udall's admission that he lost his car and got a year's suspension in 1972.

I don't see how David Sirota does this. I'm dizzy already. Follow this link for the whole story. Maybe Google will pick it up now.

Fitz-Gerald IS Running, It Turns Out

It seems that Joan Fitz-Gerald is actually running for the seat being vacated by Mark Udall. We were wondering as she ducked an opportunity to appear on Jon Caldara's Independent Thinking debate last week.

While she lacked the courage to submit to questions from a libertarian, she jumped at the chance to appear in a debate before the Boulder Press Club.

Protest Against Udall

The Daily Camera is reporting that a group raising money for Mark Udall will be faced with a peaceful protest on Monday.

Charges Flying in 2CD

It looks like Jared Polis took money from five folks who contributed to the Swift Boat political campaign in 2004. Most people wouldn't care, but in Boulder the reaction is "Gaaassp."

Joan Fitz-Gerald is making as much hay as possible, or so reports the Boulder Daily Camera.

"How does Jared even know these people, who traditionally give only to Republicans?" [ Fitz Gerald campaign manager Mary Alice ] Mandarich said of the donors.

Gaaasp!

The Denver Post reports that the Polis campaign has a comeback:

Polis' campaign manager, Wanda James, countered that Fitz-Gerald's campaign looks more and more like "a front for the oil and gas industry."

She said Fitz-Gerald has taken more than $24,000 from Excel employees.

Gaaassp! Gaaassp!