Mark Udall's Wife Closely Tied to Group Unloading Attack Ads at Bob Schaffer

Mark Udall has built a nine-point polling lead with the tremendous help of a heavy barrage of third-party attack ads. But after a closer look, one can't help but ask if the group's heavy smear strategy is being done as payback for Udall's wife Maggie Fox, or perhaps the result of some collusion with the Boulder liberal candidate.

Clearly, the hypocrisy of Maggie Fox's profitable connections to Mega Fossil Fuel producer Progress Energy is magnified by other connections not yet examined by reporters covering the Schaffer-Udall campaign. An intrepid reader brought my attention to the fact that Fox recently served as president of the group America Votes - a "group that coordinated get-out-the-vote efforts among liberal groups in the 2006 election" (Bara Vaida, “All For One, One For All,” National Journal, March 10, 2007). Fox held the post until she stepped down last June (“Names In The News,” Commercial Appeal, June 4, 2007).

The America Votes "progressive" coalition includes a whole slew of the standard Left-wing groups, such as ACORN, Emily's List, People for the American Way, Colorado's own ProgressNow Action, and the League of Conservation Voters.

Wait, League of Conservation Voters (LCV) ... hmm, where have we heard that name before? That's right, the group throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Bob Schaffer for his alleged nefarious ties to "Big Oil." (Also the group that recorded $180,000 in campaign fines during the 2006 election.)

In fact, it seems LCV has a singular obsession with Bob Schaffer, whose name they have put on their "Dirty Dozen" list (with three other names - hey, math isn't their strong suit, leave them alone). Federal Election Commission reports indicate that LCV has spent nearly $637,000 attacking Schaffer and not a nickel attacking any of the three other candidates on their "Dirty [Not Quite Half-]Dozen" list.

If you live in Colorado, most likely you've seen the obnoxious ad played over and over on local television. And ProgressNow Action - also part of the America Votes coalition - has plastered the web pages of local major newspapers with a similar silly anti-Schaffer smear.

That leaves us with at least a couple relevant questions: What relationship does Maggie Fox - and by extension Mark Udall - still have to LCV or ProgressNow? To what extent might this relationship dictate the obsessive attack strategy against Bob Schaffer?

Yet, instead of the sound of journalists' steps hot on the trail of this story, methinks I hear crickets chirping....

Mark Udall's Hypocrisy on "Big Oil" Attacks Made Clear Through Wife's Investments

Today's Denver Post headline misses the point: "Udall's wife invested in renewables". From the story:

Maggie Fox last year purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of PowerShares Exchange Traded Fund Wilderhill Clean Energy, according to a financial disclosure released Monday.

Fox also held between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of Progress Energy Inc., a Fortune 250 energy company pursuing renewable energy technologies. Most of the electricity it produces, however, still comes from oil, gas and coal. [emphasis added]

Dick Wadhams raised the point, but the Post story let it go:

Wadhams said it was "deep hypocrisy" that Udall "attacks Big Oil while the Udall family personally profited from Big Oil stocks."

One watchdog-group spokesman, however, said there isn't a clear conflict.

The primary issue here is not about conflict of interest, but about public hypocrisy.

Both Aspect Energy where Bob Schaffer worked and Progress Energy from which Mark Udall's wife profited both produce most of their energy from traditional fossil fuels. Both companies also invest in developing renewable energy sources (Bob Schaffer himself was active in promoting renewable energy development in his role with CHx Capital, part of Aspect Energy). What's the difference between the two companies, beyond public relations and political consciousness?

How about the relative size of the two companies? Aspect Energy brought in about $360 million in 2007. Progress Energy reported $9 billion-plus in 2007 operating revenues, about 25 times larger. If Aspect Energy is Big Oil, Progress Energy must be Gargantuan Oil.

And Progress Energy, which provides utilities directly to Florida consumers, has recently sought a rate hike on the families and businesses who get electricity from its oil and gas production. Is Mark Udall's wife profiting off Big Oil exploitation of hard-working Americans?

Simply put, No, unless you buy into the populist demagoguery that Mark Udall and his pro-Democrat surrogates have been practicing. But the hypocrisy and duplicity of those complaining about Bob Schaffer's ties to "Big Oil" - and silent on Maggie Fox's ties to a bigger producer of fossil fuels - are now writ large over this campaign.