The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has endorsed 7th District candidate Ed Perlmutter, the only congressional candidate the group has endorsed this year during a primary.
The endorsement came as the campaign turned increasingly rancorous in the waning days of the tight three-way Democratic primary that will be decided Aug. 8.
Peggy Lamm continued her attacks on what she called Perl mutter’s record against protecting victims of sexual assault, while other Democratic women rushed to Perlmutter’s defense.
In addition to voting against lifting the statute of limitations in some cases of rape, Perlmutter was one of just three legislators who voted to deny the victims of child sexual assault the ability to testify on closed-circuit television, Lamm’s campaign said Tuesday.
“Ed has an unfortunate rec ord of voting against protecting victims of sexual assault,” Lamm campaign director Jim Merlino said in a statement. “His campaign can say whatever they’d like, but it doesn’t change Ed’s record of voting against sexual-assault victims.”
Monday, Lamm released a commercial criticizing Perlmutter for being one of three legislators who opposed legislation doing away with the statute of limitations for rapes when DNA evidence solved the crime.
Perlmutter has said he objected to the legislation because he believed it was unconstitutional.
Criticizing the Lamm commercial Tuesday were Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriguez; Colorado State Sen. Sue Windels, a Democrat from Arvada; and former state Sen. Pat Pascoe, a Democrat from Denver.
“There is no excuse for this mud-slinging,” Windels said.
Meanwhile, the third Democrat in the primary, Herb Rubenstein, held a news conference in Golden denouncing efforts to bring the C-470 bypass there.
Golden Mayor Charles Baroch said Rubenstein’s stance could resonate with Golden voters, who he said were adamantly opposed to the bypass.
The Brady group decided to endorse Perlmutter after Lamm repeatedly failed to respond to a questionnaire seeking her stance on gun issues, said Peter Hamm, communications director of the Brady Campaign. The organization, previously known Handgun Control, Inc., was renamed in 2001 in honor of Sarah Brady and her husband, Jim, for their commitment to gun control issues. Jim Brady was shot in the 1981 attack on President Reagan.
Perlmutter earlier released a commercial accusing Lamm of siding with the gun lobby when she was a state representative.
Also Tuesday, the Lamm and Perlmutter campaigns released competing polls.
Perlmutter touted an automated Survey USA poll commissioned for Channel 9 News that showed him leading with 51 percent of the vote to 31 percent for Lamm and 10 percent for Rubenstein.
Lamm, meantime, touted a poll by the abortion-rights group Emily’s List that she said showed she had a 55 percent favorable rating versus a 47 percent favorable rating for Perl mutter.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it incorrectly stated that the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was founded by Jim Brady. In fact, the name was a new name for a previously existing organization.
