U.S. Senate
•Sen. Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund will put $150,000 more in play in Colorado for Buck.
•Both Senate candidates have taken a breather, though both have extensive plans for the campaign’s final weeks. The Politico attributed the absence, especially of Buck, as an attempt to avoid last-minute gaffes by Tea Party candidates.
•Buck joined 850KOA’s Mike Rosen for a “debate” with Bennet, but Bennet refused to show up–in fact, the Democrat’s campaign never bothered to respond to repeated requests to appear.
House
•Cory Gardner has launched a new ad targeting Rep. Betsy Markey’s record:
•Ryan Frazier says independents are the key, especially this cycle:
“On the ground, there is no sense of loyalty to the Democratic Party,” Frazier says of his district. Indeed, CO-7’s party registration breaks down nearly evenly between Democrats and Republicans. As is so often the case, this election will be determined by independents. Frazier is confident he can win over the independent vote. “They’re breaking our way. This district could be a bellwether for the entire country, based on the decisions of independent voters,” he says.
•Sound familiar? Frazier joined 850KOA’s Mike Rosen for a “debate” with Rep. Ed Perlmutter, except Perlmutter refused to show up.
Governor
•Dan Maes is banking on a new TV ad to stem the tide of withering support:
“You’ve seen polling holding pretty steady,” Strauch allows, “and now that Dan’s up on TV, we would certainly think that trend will reverse and start heading up.”
The first Maes ad began running on local TV stations in recent days, Strauch says. The commercial — see it below — is an ultra-simple pitch, with Maes talking to the camera amid family photos and graphics seen over a fluttering American flag. “It’s very straight-forward, issues-oriented and positive,” Strauch points out, stressing the last word as a way of contrasting the message’s tone with Tancredo’s advertising approach.
“Dan has used a number of colorful adjectives to describe Tom’s campaigning,” Strauch acknowledges. “He believes it does no good for the state of Colorado to attack a fellow conservative. That’s not a level he’s going to stoop to.”
•Primary flashback: The Fix blog at the Washington Post rates the anti-McInnis (and pro-Maes) ad launched in July as one of the 10 best–and most effective–spots of the primaries this year:
Colorado Freedom Fund (Democratic Governors Association) — “Politician”:
Former Rep. Scott McInnis (R) should get a writing credit for all-but-writing the ad that brought him down in the Colorado GOP governor’s race. His plagiarism scandal derailed what would otherwise have been a pretty comfortable victory. The real credit for this ad, though, goes to ad-maker Doc Sweitzer at the Campaign Group and the Democratic Governors Association, which through a third party group inserted itself into the Republican primary in the name of taking McInnis down and handing the nomination to another flawed candidate in Dan Maes. The ad is basic but it worked, and now the Democrats are heavily favored to hold this seat in a tough year in Colorado.