Tag: mark udall
Republican Gardner Elected To Senate From Colorado, Unseating Udall

Republican Gardner Elected To Senate From Colorado, Unseating Udall

By Kurtis Lee, Los Angeles Times (MCT)

Rep. Cory Gardner, a Republican, swept to victory in Colorado’s much-watched U.S. Senate race, the Associated Press projected, defeating first-term incumbent Democrat Mark Udall after a furious campaign that drew a blizzard of money from candidates, parties and deep-pocketed outside groups.

As much as any other in the country, the race featured Democrats’ argument that Republicans were engaged in a war on women with their views on contraception, abortion rights and personhood measures. Gardner attempted to blunt the assault by reversing his views on “personhood” measures — which hold that human rights begin at conception — and calling for over-the counter dispensing of birth-control pills.

But, like other Republicans across the country, he also assailed the incumbent as an ally of President Barack Obama, whose popularity has fallen despite two successive wins in Colorado in presidential years.

For several months, polls had shown the Senate race mostly tied.

Udall, who was seeking a second term, framed the contest primarily on issues surrounding women’s reproductive rights in an effort to appeal to female voters from Arapahoe and Jefferson counties in Denver’s suburbs. He pushed the issues so hard that he lost the endorsement of the Denver Post, which dubbed him “Mark Uterus.” But Tuesday’s results showed Udall’s message falling short.

Jefferson and Arapahoe counties are demonstrative of the increasingly large and somewhat unpredictable impact that unaffiliated voters have on Colorado elections. The state is divided almost evenly into thirds between Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters.

Many political observers have thought the state was transforming from a purple toss-up to more blue, especially after Obama won the state in 2008 and 2012. But strong statewide discontent with Obama gave Colorado Republicans confidence.

“This is about going forward, not backward, and that’s where my opponent wants to take us, backward,” Udall, the son of former Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona, said Tuesday in his final campaign appearance, this one at the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver.

Gardner mostly remained out of the spotlight Tuesday, holding a pair of honk-and-waves with Republicans and spending time with his wife and three children. He gave up a safe House seat in eastern Colorado to challenge Udall.

Colorado’s race for governor was also competitive, with Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper seeking to stave off a challenge from former Republican Rep. Bob Beauprez.

Contentious battles over gun control in 2013 and renewable energy gave Republicans ammunition to attack Hickenlooper and Democrats as overplaying their hand.

Hickenlooper has touted his work in lowering Colorado’s jobless rate, as well as the job his administration did helping open dozens of roads after last year’s epic flooding.

“We made a lot of tough decisions in these past few years and I’m proud of the work we’ve done,” Hickenlooper said Tuesday.

AFP Photo/Ivan Couronne

Sen. Mark Udall Apologizes For Invoking Slain U.S. Journalists

Sen. Mark Udall Apologizes For Invoking Slain U.S. Journalists

By Kurtis Lee, Los Angeles Times

Sen. Mark Udall (D-C0) on Monday apologized for invoking the names of two American journalists who were recently beheaded by Islamic State militants as he argued in a debate over the weekend.

“Steve Sotloff and James Foley would tell us, don’t be impulsive,” Udall said Saturday at a town-hall-style debate against Republican Rep. Cory Gardner in Grand Junction, Colo. “Horrible and barbarous as those executions were, don’t be impulsive, come up with a plan to knock ISIL back.” ISIL is a former abbreviation of the militant group.

Udall, who is vying for a second term and faces a formidable challenge from Gardner in a one of the country’s most competitive Senate midterm contests, got blowback for the comments when video of the debate surfaced Monday.

Gardner, who didn’t call out Udall on the comments at the debate, joined a chorus of Republicans on Monday who castigated the senior senator, saying his statements were “deeply troubling.”

“Americans have watched in horror in recent weeks as two of our fellow countrymen have been brutally executed by terrorists, and it’s outrageous that Sen. Udall would put words into the mouths of dead Americans,” Gardner said in a statement.

Sotloff and Foley were killed in recent weeks by Islamic State militants. Since early August the United States has conducted more than 140 airstrikes on militant targets in Iraq. President Barack Obama is set to address the nation Wednesday to outline a broader offensive against Islamic State militants.

Udall, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Monday in an apology statement that his intent was to “emphasize the importance of taking the right next steps as we confront this serious threat.”

“When addressing ISIL during this weekend’s debate, I should not have invoked the names of James Foley and Steven Sotloff. It was inappropriate and I sincerely apologize,” Udall said. “It is critically important for the United States, our allies and countries in the region to beat back ISIL. These terrorists are a serious threat to U.S. interests and allies in the Middle East, and Americans are counting on their leaders to get this right.”

A recent Marist survey gave Udall a 48 percent to 42 percent lead over Gardner with less than two months until Election Day. Other nonpartisan polls released since July have shown Udall with slight advantages over Gardner.

Photo: Mark Udall via Flickr

Interested in U.S. politics? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

WATCH: Democrats Won’t Let Gardner Retreat On Birth Control

WATCH: Democrats Won’t Let Gardner Retreat On Birth Control

When U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) launched his challenge to incumbent Democratic senator Mark Udall, one of his first moves was backtracking on his support for fetal personhood, which would ban abortion and outlaw some forms of birth control and emergency contraception.

“This was a bad idea driven by good intentions,” Gardner told The Denver Post in March. “I was not right. I can’t support personhood now. I can’t support personhood going forward…The fact that it restricts contraception, it was not the right position.”

As the general election draws nearer, Gardner is getting even more vocal about contraception. Last week, his campaign released an ad in which the congressman touts the virtues of making birth control pills available over the counter, while an audience of women smiles, nods, and applauds.

Gardner’s motives aren’t tough to divine. Female voters will likely make the difference in Colorado’s tight Senate race, and polls have consistently shown Udall ahead among women. Furthermore, according to an NBC News/Marist poll released Sunday, 59 percent of voters are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports restrictions on the use of contraception, while just 14 percent would be more likely. In short: Unless Gardner convinces voters that he’s had a genuine change of heart, he’s in deep trouble.

Democrats, of course, know this as well. That’s why on Monday, two Democratic groups released new ads attacking Gardner’s record on women’s health.

The first ad, from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, criticizes Gardner’s support for abortion bans, noting that “Cory Gardner sponsored a law which would have made it a class three felony to perform an abortion.”

The second, from MoveOn.org and NARAL Pro-Choice America, critizes Gardner’s birth control plan.

“Last year Gardner sponsored a federal personhood bill that could outlaw some of the most effective and reliable forms of contraception,” the ad’s female narrator says. “And Gardner’s new plan could cost women $600 a year in out-of-pocket medical costs.”

While Gardner has taken the most heat from Democrats, he is not the only Republican Senate candidate to try to attract female voters by backing over-the-counter contraception. Minnesota’s Mike McFadden, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, and Virginia’s Ed Gillespie have all pushed similar messages.

It probably won’t work. After all, the Republican candidates are still on record as fiercely opposing the Affordable Care Act, which mandates that private insurance plans cover some contraceptive costs. All four also spoke out in favor of the Supreme Court’s controversial Hobby Lobby decision, which greatly expanded corporations’ ability to circumvent the contraception mandate. And, most important, women are likely to recognize that — while the new Republican plan is better than nothing — offering birth control over the counter without continuing to compel insurance companies to pay for it would be a bad deal for them.

More Republicans will likely adopt the Gardner position, in an effort to blunt claims of a GOP “war on women.” But as Monday’s ads show, Democrats won’t let the flip-flops go unnoticed.

Screenshot: MoveOn.org/YouTube

Want more political news and analysis? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

GOP Senate Candidate Is Obamacare’s Latest Fake Victim

GOP Senate Candidate Is Obamacare’s Latest Fake Victim

With his political allies perpetually unable to find an actual victim of the Affordable Care Act, Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) is taking matters into his own hands.

This week, Gardner — the Republican nominee challenging incumbent Democrat Mark Udall in Colorado’s Senate race — released a new ad presenting himself as an Obamacare victim.

“When Mark Udall voted for Obamacare, he promised us if we liked our health care plan, we could keep it. Well, you know how that worked out,” Gardner says in the ad.

“I got a letter saying my family’s plan was canceled; 335,000 Coloradans had their plans canceled too. Thousands of families saw their health care premiums rise,” he continues. “More cancelations are on the way. You might have one of those letters in your mailbox right now.”

Like most of his Republican colleagues, Gardner overstates the supposed cancelation crisis. Although many Coloradans did receive cancelation notices, 92 percent of them were offered renewal options. Meanwhile, Colorado’s uninsured rate dropped by 6 percent over the past year, the fifth-largest reduction of any state in the nation. And premiums in Colorado are projected to rise just 3.6 percent, less than half of the average annual increase between 1991 and 2009.

And like most of the other “victims” to appear in an anti-Obamacare ad, Gardner’s story doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. As David Nir explains at Daily Kos:

Finally, you might be wondering how it was that Gardner was even in a position to have his own insurance plan canceled in the first place. Yes, members of Congress are now required to purchase insurance on the exchanges, but this cancelation happened last year, before the law went into effect. It turns out that Gardner voluntarily chose to decline congressional coverage and bought his own insurance in its place—an extremely expensive decision that’s comparable to turning down a bus pass from your employer and leasing a BMW instead.

As one health care expert put it, most people “don’t have the resources” to do something like that (nor would they want to), so even if Gardner’s story is accurate, it’s “not the norm.” You might almost imagine that Gardner did all this to make an asinine political point, one he’s now trying to capitalize on. But what politician would ever do a thing like that?

So just like Richelle McKim, Julie Boonstra, Bette Grenier, and Americans for Prosperity’s professional actors, Cory Gardner is going to be just fine. But that won’t stop Republicans’ never-ending quest to find someone who isn’t.

Screenshot: Cory Gardner for Senate/YouTube

Want more political news and analysis? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!