Republican Bob Beauprez, who is running for governor, poses with his wife Claudia, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Senate hopeful Cory Gardner after a rally Thursday in Colorado Springs. (Gardner photo)

A year after calling Colorado Congressmen Cory Gardner a “hypocrite,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie campaigned in Colorado on the Senate hopeful’s behalf.

Christie and other New Jersey officials were livid last year when Colorado’s Republican congressmen who had opposed the $50 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package asked for some of the money to help with the Centennial’s state historic flooding. “They’re hypocrites. That’s what they are,” Christie said, in a telephone town hall, adding there was “no other way to put it.”

Christie didn’t back down on last year’s statement after a campaign rally Thursday in Colorado Springs.

“Listen, my view still is that Cory Gardner was wrong on that vote. But you know, if you’re looking for a candidate you agree with 100 percent of the time go home and look in the mirror,” Christie said. “But he overwhelmingly is a better choice for the U.S Senate than Sen. Udall, overwhelmingly.”

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The Colorado Republican Committee sent a mailer attacking Sen. Mark Udall’s immigration record to some registered voters this week.

In the final week of the campaign, the Colorado Republican party this week is sending some registered voters a mailer attacking Sen. Mark Udall and his fellow Democrats for failing to pass immigration reform.

What, you say?

The U.S. Senate, controlled by the majority Democrats, passed a bipartisan, far-reaching immigration reform bill last year, with Udall’s and Democratic President Barack Obama’s support. And it promptly landed in the U.S. House — controlled by Republicans — with a thud. Udall’s opponent, U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, has not supported that bill, while saying he supports some alternative reform measures that would provide an undefined path to legal status for immigrants in the country illegally.

The mailer does point out that for part of the time Obama has been in office (2009-2010), Democrats had a majority in both chambers of Congress. And when they had full control, “they refused to honor their campaign promise,” the mailer says.

Fair point. The mailer then says it’s time to give “a new generation of leadership” a chance.

But the lack of context on the mailer for why Democrats have failed to pass immigration reform since then — namely, fierce disagreement by the Republican House over the Senate’s comprehensive bill, including opposition to the bill by Gardner — is striking. It suggests the state party is making an attempt to sow doubt in voters who might otherwise support Udall as Tuesday’s election approaches.

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El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Wayne Williams’ turn in the Fox News spotlight has liberals and union bosses riled up. Even the host of the interview, Megyn Kelly, didn’t seem to buy Williams’ logic that one of the problems with Colorado’s mail-in ballots is that it gives union bosses in voters’ homes the chance to influence the election.

“There are some Coloradans who prefer not to get a ballot mailed to them because there might be someone in the household, a union boss, an employer, who intimidates them once they get that ballot,” Williams, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, said on Tuesday night’s “The Kelly File.”

“They would prefer to just have the ability to go into a polling place. They can go into a polling place now but if they’ve already cast that mail ballot, if someone has influenced them and they cast it already, they don’t have the ability to go into a pristine polling place in which no one can influence them.”

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Rep. Cory Gardner

A Quinnipiac University poll gives Gardner 46 percent to Udall’s 39 percent among likely voters, a slight improvement for the Republican from a week ago when he led by five points.

Independent candidate Steve Shogan gets 7 percent and another 7 percent are undecided, the survey found. The margin of error is 3.4 percent.

The GOP advantage reflects the results in the governor’s race and once again will draw scrutiny from Democrats who suggest it is under-sampling their supporters. The Quinnipiac surveys have wavered significantly this election season and don’t dovetail with other polling in the race.

Gardner’s lead is built with support from men, a 21-point advantage that surpasses Udall’s four-point advantage among women, the poll found.

“This Colorado Senate race has national implications, and it’s taken an ugly turn for the incumbent,” said Tim Malloy, the poll’s assistant director.

The poll was conducted Oct. 22 through Monday and reached 844 likely voters via live-callers dialing land lines and cellphones.

Cory Gardner’s first Spanish-language ad.

Congressman Cory Gardner, who is trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, has aired his first ad aimed at Colorado’s growing Latino population and crucial vote.

“Cory is a family man with two priorities: preparing our kids to be leaders and creating the jobs that our families need,” a narrator says in Spanish.

The ad ends with Gardner saying in Spanish, “I’m Cory Gardner and I approve this message.”

Udall’s campaign has posted at least three Spanish language ads, starting in August, that focus on issues ranging from education to opportunity. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee partnered with one of the ads.

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Republican Bob Beauprez and Democrat John Hickenlooper are running for Colorado governor. (Denver Post, Boulder Daily Camera file)

The Quinnipiac University survey gives Beauprez 45 percent to 40 percent for Hickenlooper, a lead outside the 3.4 percent margin of error. It reflects a reversal from a week earlier in the poll show the two candidates deadlocked, Hickenlooper at 45 percent and Beauprez at 44 percent.

For the past month, the poll’s numbers showed the race all over the place, from the Republican plus-10 points in mid-September to a closer contest in October, drawing plenty of scrutiny about the results. The survey doesn’t fit the pattern seen in other recent polls that show Hickenlooper with the advantage and what is behind the shift is unclear.

But the poll does come at an interesting point in the campaign — days after Beauprez launched a fear-laden television ad that asks, “With John Hickenlooper as governor … is your family safe?” Whether the poll reflects any movement from the ad is sure to draw speculation.

One interesting number from the polling breakdown is a change in Hickenlooper’s image. A week ago, his favorability stood at 51 percent and unfavorability at 42 percent. Now, it’s 46-46, the poll found.

Beauprez’s favorability is 47 percent to 34 percent unfavorable with a sizable 17 percent undecided.

Another curious number: men back Beauprez by a 21 point margin, far surpassing the 10-point advantage Hickenlooper holds with women voters.

The poll was conducted Oct. 22 through Monday and live callers reached likely voters at land lines and cell phones.

UPDATE: The link is fixed.

UPDATE: Cory Gardner offers his own ad, which touts his newspaper endorsements that also included criticism of Udall’s focus on women’s reproductive rights.

Sen. Mark Udall’s latest ad.

A new 30-second ad from Sen. Mark Udall focuses on Republican opponent Cory Gardner’s sponsorship of a federal bill that critics say would ban abortion and outlaw common forms of birth control.

Almost everyone but Congressman Gardner agrees that the federal bill is similar to state “personhood” measures that Coloradans overwhelmingly defeated and Gardner supported until just weeks after entering the Senate race in February. And the ad hammers home that theme.

“Colorado can’t just trust the real Cory Gardner,” the campaign said, in its news release.

Gardner’s campaign has blistered the Democratic senator for his focus on a single issue in a campaign where Coloradans are talking about jobs and the economy.

Gardner’s new ad makes that same point, featuring excerpts from major newspaper endorsements that tout Gardner and criticize Udall.

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By Joe Fries, Anna Gauldin and Molly Homburger

Rep. Mike Coffman’s campaign is out with a frightening attack ad highlighting Democratic challenger Andrew Romanoff’s allegedly extreme plans for Colorado.

The spooky commercial, entitled “Agenda,” embraces the spirit of the Halloween season, painting Romanoff as the villain. The ad depicts him as an evil, aggressive, zombie-like creature bent on pushing his extreme health care agenda onto Coloradans if elected.

Pointing to Romanoff’s past campaign ads as well as his association with the Affordable Care Act, the commercial warns viewers of hidden plans. The ad was released just two days before the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee decided to redistribute $1.4 million originally intended to boost Romanoff in the final weeks before the election.

Let’s break down Coffman’s claims against Romanoff below.

Claim 1: “The Denver Post called Andrew Romanoff’s attacks over the top, shameful.”

While the narrator discusses Romanoff’s “shameful” and “over the top” campaign ads, five television screens flicker above the accusations.
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