<\/p>\n
Television campaign attack ads dominating airwaves across the state depict Colorado\u2019s senatorial candidates as extreme, harmful and woefully out of step with their fellow Coloradans.<\/p>\n
Crossroads GPS, a conservative political action committee headed by former Bush administrator Karl Rove, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee portray U.S. Sen. Mark Udall as a hapless sycophant of President Barack Obama\u2019s. Their ads assert that Udall\u2019s support of the Affordable Care Act \u2013 Obamacare \u2013 has harmed Coloradans one and all.<\/p>\n
Liberal groups like the Senate Majority PAC and Next Generation Climate Action show Udall\u2019s opponent, Colorado Republican Congressman Cory Gardner, as a grim-faced misogynist, whose views on issues important to women are medieval, at best.<\/p>\n
Udall-Gardner, not incidentally, is one of the race\u2019s expected to determine which party controls the U.S. Senate after the Nov. 4 election. So far, the outside groups have spent almost three times as much as the candidates themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you run around the country there are maybe 10 states that have really competitive races, and Republicans need to win 6 senate seats to win the Senate \u2013 Colorado is very competitive,\u201d said political analyst Floyd Ciruli. \u201cIt\u2019s not quite a Super Bowl, that\u2019d be the presidential race \u2013 but we\u2019re in a very major, close playoff.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it may come as no surprise that millions are being spent by outside organizations to paint the two Colorado candidates into very dark corners.<\/p>\n
But what might be surprising is comparing funders of the negative attacks with what their primary interests truly are.<\/p>\n
A Rocky Mountain PBS I-News analysis of Federal Communications Commission and Federal Election Commission data, as well as reports collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, demonstrate how the playbook works.<\/p>\n
First, use polarizing issues to ignite voters.<\/p>\n
Thomas Steyer, a California billionaire who has drawn attention for his philanthropy and activism for environmental causes, has mastered this first play.<\/p>\n
Steyer is the lead financial backer for Next Generation Climate Action, which has so far spent more than $1 million in this state\u2019s largest television markets, Denver and Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n
Two of the most widely-aired ads from Streyer\u2019s organization \u2013 named \u201cKeep Out\u201d and \u201cNot Extreme?\u201d \u2013 assault Gardner for his positions against birth control and abortion and same sex marriage \u2013 all highly polarizing issues.<\/p>\n
But Next Generation Climate Action does not, as an organization, list any interest in policies related to abortion, marriage equality or birth control. To be fair, the ads do briefly mention climate change, scoffing that Gardner \u201cthinks he knows better than the scientists, NASA and the U.S. military on climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a straight out brawling competition,\u201d Ciruli said. \u201cThe people who play it may be personally idealistic, but in the way they play the game they are totally realists, and research shows them that climate change is not nearly as effective at moving voters as things like reproductive rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, other groups whose primary interests are oil and gas development or the energy business attack Udall\u2019s support of the Affordable Care Act. While their true concern might be approval for the Keystone pipeline, as an example, they\u2019re betting that Obamacare is still such a negatively-charged issue that it can help sink the environmentally-minded Udall.<\/p>\n
Sometimes they might mention energy issues, but not as a primary focus.<\/p>\n
The second power play works by cloaking one\u2019s self-interests in charitable or non-profit political giving, as modern masters Sheldon Adelson and David and Charles Koch have demonstrated.<\/p>\n
Adelson and his wife, Mariam, donated $23 million during the 2012 presidential cycle to Crossroads GPS on behalf of the non-profit Adelson Drug Clinic and Adelson\u2019s corporation, Las Vegas Sands, according to files from the Federal Election Commission.<\/p>\n
Sheldon Adelson, listed as the 8th wealthiest man on earth by Forbes, with a net worth of more than $31 billion, has nonetheless drawn wide attention to his heavy contributions to campaign finance. He has also been litigating a federal laws uit aimed at his overseas casinos.<\/p>\n
Similarly, David and Charles Koch have been intimately linked with Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Partners, and Crossroads GPS in the past, but their contributions this cycle are not known.<\/p>\n
\u201cNonprofit political groups do not have to disclose donors,\u201d Viveka Novak, editorial and communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics explained. \u201cSo we could only identify organizations that filed 990s (nonprofit tax forms) and that wouldn\u2019t include individuals or corporations, so there are still a lot of donors or donations no one would know about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelson, the Koch Brothers and many other political ly active billionaires and multimillionaires across the political spectrum, are able to maintain privacy and give endless funds following the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s 2010 Citizens United decision, which held that political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s still another trick in the playbook, and that\u2019s playing both sides. By contributing to competing candidates, it can be hard to lose, the reasoning goes.<\/p>\n
Hedge funds and international investment banks are among the leading campaign contributors in the United States \u2013 and they donate in almost equal amounts to both Democrat and Republican committees.<\/p>\n
Consider Renaissance Technologies, a New York hedge fund that in 2013 managed an estimated $25 billion dollars.<\/p>\n
This year, the founder and retired chief executive officer, James H. Simons was ranked by Forbes among the world\u2019s wealthiest people at $12.5 billion. Of the millions of dollars Simons and CEO of Renaissance, Robert Mercer, have donated to campaign groups this year, about $3 million went to liberal organizations, and $3 million to conservatives.<\/p>\n
This company\u2019s lobbying records in 2014 show that its primary focus is to avoid higher tax rates for hedge funds \u2013 an issue almost totally ignored in the majority of Colorado\u2019s campaign ads. In fact, of over thirty ads reviewed by I-News and truth tested by 9News, only one ad even briefly mentioned \u201ctax rates for companies overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blackstone Group is also a top hedge fund contributor to both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Sena torial Committee.<\/p>\n
These committees have already spent $3.9 million and $1.7 million, respectively, on campaign ads in Denver, bashing either Gardner or Udall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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