Supporters of the budget measures on this fall’s ballot are stirring to life after a slow-motion start that let opponents set a faster pace in the debate over whether the proposals translate to a tax hike.
On Saturday, the “Vote Yes on C & D” campaign committee began distributing about 100,000 yard signs in metro Denver to promote its cause.
And the committee has unleashed a tough-talking television advertisement that accuses opponents of lying.
“I’m a firm believer in the power of negative advertising,” said Katy Atkinson, spokeswoman for the Yes on C & D committee. “And they’ve been in the enviable position of doing nothing but negative advertising.”
The proponents’ one-two punch is designed to counter the opposition campaign’s fiery rhetoric and attention-getting campaign stunts.
Since spring, opponents of the proposal to suspend parts of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights have distributed “No Refund for You” bumper stickers. In recent weeks, they have tugged a Trojan horse around the state and released a “piglet book” that highlights government spending they consider wasteful.
This weekend, volunteers with FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., are targeting the homes of Republicans and independents in El Paso, Weld and Arapahoe counties, affixing “Vote No on the Ref C Tax Hike” door hangers to their door knobs.
Opponents of Referendums C and D say the ballot measures are a stealth tax increase.
Referendum C would suspend TABOR limits on growth in state spending for five years and would eliminate tax refunds caused by those restrictions. Current estimates peg the amount that the state would keep at as much as $3.7 billion over five years. Most taxpayers would lose a total of about $500 in TABOR refunds over those five years.
Referendum D allows the state to borrow an additional $2.1 billion for roads, schools and pensions for police officers and fire fighters.
The backers of the ballot measures spent most of the summer collecting endorsements, raising money and giving speeches to small groups of likely supporters.
They have attempted to get attention for their cause by walking across the state.
Michael Kanner, a political science instructor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the opponents have been leading the way in getting their message out.
“The anti-C and D committee has an advantage because of the status-quo bias,” Kanner said. “People don’t like change.”
But they are also better at crafting clever messages and images that capture voters’ attention.
“I have yet to see a pro-C and D billboard,” Kanner said. “And so far their ads haven’t been good.”
The gap in message-making has captured the attention of some proponents of the budget measures.
“I’m not satisfied,” said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, a key architect of the plan who has been stumping for it around the state. “But then, I’m never satisfied. The satisfied camp is the losing one. You should always be scared that you might lose.”
Romanoff said signs are beginning to sprout in yards and brochures are getting distributed by members of some of the 800-plus groups that have endorsed the proposals.
Meanwhile, the opponents are pushing hard to meet voters.
The plan, said Beth Skinner, FreedomWorks’ Colorado coordinator, is “to beat this thing like a … mule” as Election Day, Nov. 1, nears.
Next week, former Texas Republican Rep. Dick Armey, now the national co-chairman of FreedomWorks, will come to Colorado to cheer on volunteers, Skinner said.
Her volunteers’ door-to-door search for votes will be most intense in strong Republican counties and swing counties like Arapahoe County, she said.
Kanner said that the proponents’ late-starting push could be a deliberate strategy because most voters don’t start paying attention until closer to election day.
“This is the middle of September,” Kanner said. “When I talk to my neighbors, they don’t know much about C and D.”
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
