The Rumors of the NRSC's Demise in Colorado Are Greatly Exaggerated

Exuberant Lefties started prematurely popping the corks on their champagne yesterday, pouncing on rumors that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) had abandoned candidate Bob Schaffer - which would have effectively marked a victory for Boulder liberal Mark Udall. Even career .229 hitter Steve Balboni got in on the act.

Of course, none of them bothered to ask the NRSC if they were actually, you know, leaving Colorado. Jeremy Pelzer at Politicker was among the first to publish the factual account: "NRSC releases new anti-Udall ad, says it's staying in Colorado". Speaking of the ad, here it is:

It's still an uphill climb for Bob Schaffer, but he isn't quite out of it yet. Lefties might want to postpone their celebration for a little while.

Freedom's Watch Comes Up with Most Creative Ad of the Campaign? Wait & See

It's hard to keep track of the third-party ads taking on Mark Udall for his untimely shortcomings, U-turns, and missed votes on energy policy. This one from Freedom's Watch, though, may take the cake:

I'll place it into nomination for most creative ad of the campaign. PolitickerCO and National Journal both seem impressed enough.

We've got more than 10 weeks to see if one of the campaigns or an outside group has a better entry.

Politicker's Silly Dig at New Schaffer Staffer: Another Sign Debate's Time Has Come

More proof positive that Colorado's U.S. Senate race apparently lacks substance and that the first debate can't arrive soon enough....From Politicker today comes this report about the Bob Schaffer campaign's hiring of a new press secretary, one-time Wayne Allard staffer and former schoolteacher Kelly Brady:

"Kelly is an excellent addition to our hard working staff," said Schaffer in the first release issued by Brady. "She brings a wealth of knowledge and insight into the issues affecting Colorado voters."

We assume that Brady wrote the Schaffer quote herself.

And that's all she could come up with about yourself [sic]?

Kelly...you have a pen...use it.

Actually, a little modesty and a sense of perspective is quite refreshing. Kelly Brady recognizes it isn't all about herself - a sort of elementary discovery that has escaped many on the contemporary political scene.

Quite simply put, we at Schaffer v Udall are looking forward to the first debate, too.

Superdelegate Mark Udall Finally Decides on Obama, Still Avoiding Debate Challenge

The heat is finally off Mark Udall as a superdelegate. Based on a report from Politicker's Jeremy Pelzer, Udall has fallen in line by giving his endorsement to the now-inevitable candidacy of Barack Obama.

Just yesterday we wondered when Mark Udall might make the obvious choice. We're glad to see he didn't waste too much time on this important decision.

Now that the pressure to make a superdelegate endorsement is off Mark Udall's back, maybe he can focus on Bob Schaffer's request to have unscripted, Lincoln-Douglas-style debates. Nearly four weeks has gone by since the request was issued, and Udall has continued to hide from the challenge.

The Udall Watch superdelegate timer has disappeared, but the running clock that highlights Mark Udall's debate avoidance remains.

"Well, I believe George Soros should take a long walk off a short pier...."

We've debunked the anti-Schaffer nonsense encapsulated in the ad from George Soros-funded Campaign Money Watch, but it's nice to hear the 60-second version of the rebuttal made for radio. Here's the ad produced and aired by the El Paso County Republican Party (H/T Politicker CO):

Now there's some Big Blue Lie Machine disinfectant for you.

Mark Udall Now Running from "Boulder Liberal" Tag and Debates? A Connection?

Mark Udall appears to be waffling in his relationship with the liberal city of Boulder he has represented for 9 years in Congress. Politicker's Jeremy Pelzer tried to track down the definition of exactly where Udall lives:

Udall, a U.S. Representative and the presumptive Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, is regularly listed in the press as being from Eldorado Springs. That is what his congressional and campaign offices say, too.

Udall's home, however, is in unincorporated Boulder, about halfway between Eldorado Springs and the city of Boulder.

The Udalls purchased the home, about a mile and a half outside Eldorado Springs, in 2003; before that, they lived in the city of Boulder, said Udall campaign spokesperson Taylor West.

West said Udall's mailing address lists him in Boulder.

"But if you look at it on the map, it's pretty blatantly not in Boulder - it's Eldorado Springs," West said. "This is a Schaffer campaign attempt to distract what are extremely serious issues that people in Colorado are facing. If this is how they plan to run their campaign, that's fine. But we're going to spend time addressing issues that people in Colorado care about."

A pretty testy and defensive response from Ms. West, especially when just a few months ago she insisted the "Boulder liberal" tag would not hurt her candidate, and Mark Udall himself has insisted that Boulder is his "touchstone". So does Udall have a love-hate relationship with the "Boulder liberal" tag or what?

Further, West made a valiant but disingenuous attempt to accuse the other side of causing distractions. Yet only two days remain for Mark Udall's campaign to respond to Bob Schaffer's proposal for Lincoln-Douglas style debates to address the "extremely serious issues that people in Colorado are facing." And Udall accepted the debate idea before he was against it -- a real profile in "courage".

We at SvU hope that Mark Udall changes course, follows the lead of nonpartisan news and civic organizations and joins in Bob Schaffer's proposed summer debate series designed to discuss "extremely serious issues that people in Colorado are facing," or as Schaffer put it in his official proposal: "Let's give voters in every part of the state a chance to hear directly from us on issues important to them and to our state."

Mark Udall can give voters that chance, or maybe he's afraid that Coloradans will see there really is something to the "Boulder liberal" tag.

Why Not Ask Mark Udall if He Supports Department of Peace Initiative?

Questions have been raised about the fairness of Politicker's Jeremy Pelzer recent approach to interviewing the two major party U.S. Senate candidates. On this slow news day, it seemed like a good time to put forth a key example.

From Pelzer's interview of Republican Bob Schaffer:

PolitickerCO: [American Right to Life Action head Steve Curtis] also said that you had not weighed in on the personhood referendum, proposed referendum-

And later:

PolitickerCO: I should ask you - what do you think of the proposed referendum to recognize an embryo as a person? Do you have an opinion on that?

Note that it's far from clear at this point that this initiative will collect enough signatures to be on the ballot. And reasonable pro-life advocates disagree on whether this is the right approach. Schaffer declined to answer the question.

Yet, speaking of relevant statewide initiative issues, why didn't Pelzer ask Mark Udall whether he supported the Department of Peace initiative? After all, Udall once was a co-sponsor of a very similar measure in Congress.

But the Department of Peace initiative hasn't even collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot, you say? Exactly. Just looking for a little consistency.

Is Calling Mark Udall a "Boulder Liberal" Namecalling?

Yesterday, Politicker reported that John Randall had called Mark Udall U-Turn Udall. That is unfortunate, but it should be noted that we are unaware of Randall ever before calling Udall a name.

It is interesting that only three folks have called Mark Udall a name, and all of them have called him U-Turn Udall. If a name could be made to stick, it is probably that one. So far, all of them have done it only once, and they each did it when speaking or writing on different subjects.

We hope it stops.

Today, the Longmont Times call has this very interesting quote:

For more than a year, [ Dick ] Wadhams and other Republicans have brandished the “Boulder liberal” label when talking about [ Mark ] Udall, but the Democrat’s campaign staff has dismissed the tag as narrow and misleading.

But [ Taylor ] West said [ Dick ] Wadhams and Schaffer “know that Bob Schaffer’s record is far out of the mainstream for Colorado. The only way they can deal with that is by calling names and making up labels.”

The problem is that "Boulder Liberal" is not a name, it is a label that liberal blogs and msm outlets have used in various forms for nearly a year to describe Mark Udall.

The Longmont Times Call itself reported that Mark Udall had said about himself and his connection to Boulder:

Said [ Mark ] Udall, who lives in Eldorado Springs: “It’s wonderful to be home.” He said Boulder County is “home base for me. This is the touchstone; this is where I take my inspiration.”

It is hard to understand how the Times-Call could imply that the "Boulder Liberal" tag is a Republican invention when Mark Udall clearly applies it to himself and does it in their own paper.

It is also hard to see how Mark Udall can claim to have clean hands in the name calling arena when absurdicus is hard at work using name calling as a substitute for honest debate.

Taylor West would like to believe that only her friends see Mark Udall fundraising letters. Mark Udall routinely calls Bob Schaffer an "extremist" and signs his name to those letters. Her feigned "shock" that someone would label Mark Udall something as mild as "Boulder Liberal" is nothing short of hypocritical.

Too Cheap to Invest In Himself

Politicker is reporting that Mark Udall can't seem to find the confidence to invest even a dollar in his own campaign:

One of those candidates is Democrat Mark Udall who is running for US Senate and has raised over $3.7 million in contributions with none of that money coming from himself as of the last filing. His opponent, Republican Bob Schaffer, has donated $4600 to his own campaign, according to the website OpenSecrets.org.

We Was Fired!

Now comes news that the National Republican Senate Committee will be doing its own blog on Mark Udall. It appears, according to Politicker to be being called BoulderLiberalMarkUdall.com. It's pretty spiffy, though they are yet to make their first post.

“It’s going to be a truth site of what Mark Udall is all about,” says NRSC spokesman John Randall.

We're guessing that John Randall, whoever he is, thought we told too many tall tales here (chuckle), or that we were costing the GOP and the Schaffer campaign too much money (we do this for free and out of conviction). Maybe they were worried about their reputation (looks around).

No, we weren't really fired (that we know of).

We do expect that the two sites will be additive, in part because there is so much material available that isn't easily presented in a short blog style format. It will be just another resource for us and for YOU!

Just Too Busy

Today, a bomb went off in a Times Square recruiting station. Last month, the city of Berkeley voted to oust a recruiting station.

When Mark Udall was asked why he didn't use his position in Congress to try to stop that kind of nonsense, he said, through his spokesperson: "I'm too busy."

Udall spokesperson Taylor West responded in a statement that the ad was "dishonest and intentionally misleading."

"Mark Udall believes Congress has much more important work to do – on everything from the lagging economy, to skyrocketing oil prices, to getting our kids covered with health care, to ending the war in Iraq in a responsible way – than micromanaging the budgets of cities for the sake of political gamesmanship," West said in the statement.

Thanks to Politicker.

This quote is so out of touch with Colorado values that readers should expect us to come back to it several times in the next few days.

Taylor West is God's gift to this blog. We are literally sitting here laughing as we write this stuff and contemplate the possibilities.

Udall Staffer Promoting Salazar for VP

In a curious little blurb, Politicker is claiming that there is talk of Ken Salazar running as Hillary's vice president. This began on the Sunday Chris Matthews show when one pundit claimed that Salazar would make a good VP candidate and one obscure Colorado blog picked it up.

Politicker ran down a Mark Udall spokesman for a quote:

“Mark [ Udall ] knows Ken [ Salazar ] would make an excellent choice, both as a nominee and as Vice President,” said Udall campaign spokesperson Taylor West in a statement Wednesday morning. “In addition to the judgment and experience he’d bring to the job overall, he’d also be a strong voice for the West and for rural America.”

“We’d certainly miss his work as a U.S. Senator, but having him in the executive branch would be great for Colorado and great for the country,” West concluded.

If there is one thing that might strengthen Mark Udall's chances of becoming a US Senator, it would be Ken Salazar sucking up the oxygen in Colorado as a VP candidate. While the liberal bloggers and the msm recognize that Mark Udall is well to the left of liberal Ken Salazar (as you can verify by following our scoreboard "bread crumbs"), the Colorado public probably doesn't know that yet.

They will begin to find out how liberal, even left wing Mark Udall is as the liberal circus that is the Democrat National Convention comes to town. If Salazar were on the ticket, he would be the news. Of course Taylor West and Mark Udall would like to see that happen.