You know the campaign scene has gotten bad when even Cary Kennedy throws a cheap shot.
The affable Colorado treasurer is in a tight race with Republican Walker Stapleton, and on Tuesday she sent out a letter to supporters highlighting that Stapleton had a car accident in 1999 in which he was convicted of a DUI. She included that he was charged with a hit and run and failing to render care at the scene of the accident — charges that were later dropped.
She also unveiled a new TV ad that seems to pile on erroneous online reports last week that Stapleton hit two pedestrians. Meanwhile, she has been urging him to “verify” what happened even though The Denver Post reported Friday that San Francisco police say he did not hit pedestrians.
Stapleton’s DUI is clearly fair game, as are his actions after the accident. But the ad and her statements are more examples of how candidates use only pieces of factual accounts to raise unfair suspicions.
As political ads go, Kennedy’s latest is not as bad as others that have popped up in recent weeks that we think are beneath the dignity of the offices these politicians wish to hold.
In recent weeks we’ve commented on the over-the-top attacks in the state’s marquee race, notably those attacks Sen. Michael Bennet has leveled at Ken Buck, but it’s getting pretty nasty in state-level races, too.
Stapleton hasn’t exactly played fair, either. He has accused Kennedy of being a mostly silent member of the Colorado Public Employee Retirement Association board as PERA heads for insolvency. But Kennedy helped craft legislation meant to shore up the retirement fund.
In the gubernatorial race, Tom Tancredo has run an ad attacking Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper for the fatal car accident that killed 3-year-old Marten Kudlis. In it, the father of the child, who was killed by an illegal immigrant, blames the mayor’s “sanctuary city policies.”
While it is true that the killer, Francis Hernandez, was an illegal immigrant — and an outlaw who had been frequently arrested — it is not true that Denver’s policies and procedures prevent police from notifying federal immigration agents and working with them to enforce laws.
Hickenlooper, so far, has kept his promise to keep his ads clean.
In the race for attorney general, Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett has leveled a vicious attack on incumbent John Suthers, alleging Suthers “unleashed a serial killer on Colorado.” As U.S. attorney, Suthers in 2002 signed paperwork that freed Scott Kimball, who was in prison for check fraud, to serve the FBI as a confidential informant. However, Kimball, who had no past convictions for violent crimes, went on to commit at least four murders.
His crimes were heinous, but as we’ve said before, the blame for them — to the extent it doesn’t entirely fall on the murderer himself — better rests with the FBI and holes in the screening process, not a U.S. attorney who agreed to allow investigators to use Kimball as an informant.
We don’t expect civility from secretive 527 groups that create some of the most offensive ads, but Coloradans deserve better from the people wishing to serve them.
