Republican Mike Coffman and Democrat Andrew Romanoff. (The Denver Post)
In the land of sizeable TV ad buys, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been attacking Democratic congressional candidate Andrew Romanoff this month with a message that’s a simple, perennial favorite of Republicans: It links him to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker when Democrats were in control. The ad’s narrator concludes: “In Washington, Andrew Romanoff would work for Pelosi, not us.”
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce disclosed that it’s spending $300,000 to place the ad widely. The group previously has spent more than $450,000 in support of Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman’s re-election campaign against Romanoff, the former Colorado House speaker, in suburban Denver’s 6th Congressional District.
The ad’s message isn’t too surprising — it’s a gut-level appeal to voters who might be turned off by Pelosi, — but the claims made in it get plenty of pushback from the Romanoff campaign.
Romanoff on Monday used the ad in a fundraising email to supporters. He refers to a challenge he accepted, conditionally, from a group called CounterPAC to discourage outside spending from groups that don’t disclose their donors, such as the Chamber. Coffman , with his campaign manager questioning the group’s motives.
The Chamber ad says Romanoff would back Pelosi’s “big-spending agenda,” in which Romanoff said he’d be not only progressive but more aggressive than his then-opponent, Sen. Michael Bennet, a fellow Democrat. The Romanoff camp points out that the article describes Romanoff’s tenure as state House speaker as one prone to moderation, though that was before he moved left to challenge Bennet.
Next in the Chamber’s attacks is that Romanoff “supports more government and higher taxes,” based on . Romanoff was quoted as supporting Wall Street reform and new regulations being passed by Democrats in Congress. Many Republicans opposed that reform, including Coffman. Rather than creating “more government,” Romanoff’s campaign prefers to characterize the reforms as “reining in Wall Street banks.”
The ad says Romanoff “wants massive new regulations on Colorado energy — just like Pelosi.” That claim is based on in which Romanoff said Colorado’s renewable energy standards were a good national model. The Obama administration was rolling out renewable energy standards intended to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
Finally, the ad says “Romonoff even refuses to support Keystone XL.” It refers to that doesn’t quite say that. The post says Romanoff is publicly undecided on the proposed oil pipeline and is waiting for more information from a review that’s underway. He’s taken flak since then for not taking a firm position, with critics arguing there already is plenty of information available.
Romanoff campaign spokeswoman Denise Baron said about the ad, “Cynical attacks like these are eroding voters’ faith in our democracy.” She also said: “Andrew remains focused on creating jobs, growing the economy and strengthening the middle class — and on standing up to the special interests that seek to dictate Coloradans’ decisions in this election.”
Coffman campaign manager Tyler Sandberg said the Chamber’s attacks on Romanoff are fair game, and “Romanoff’s relationship to Nancy Pelosi is pivotal to understanding who Andrew Romanoff would really be working for in Congress.” He also said: “Nancy Pelosi recruited Andrew Romanoff to run and has raised ungodly sums of money on Romanoff’s behalf to smear Mike Coffman.” He suggested that Pelosi’s campaign committees would spend more to defeat Coffman than any other member of Congress this year.
