August 07, 2007 10:21 PM UTC

Gloves Come Off as Lefties Press Schaffer Attacks

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado Statesman reports (no link available):

A vote that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer cast in his role as a member of the State Board of Education (SBOE) has come back to haunt him. Politically, at least.

Last week, the self-described “progressive” group known as ProgressNowAction attacked Schaffer for accepting campaign contributions from a charter school proprietor they say benefited financially from Schaffer’s vote on May 9.

Schaffer insists the charges are nothing but nonsense emanating from an “extremist” group…

“Schaffer conveniently disregarded the notion of ‘local control’ and voted for huge profits for [donor David] Brennan on the backs on Colorado taxpayers,” ProgressNowAction Executive Director Michael Huttner charged. “Colorado needs to hold Schaffer accountable for selling his vote to the highest donor.”

Schaffer replied mockingly that Huttner must be attacking his “clairvoyance” because the contributions were given after the vote was cast…

One person delighted with Huttner’s attack on Schaffer is Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams, who said gleefully, “What, you mean the blank shot that [ProgressNowAction] took? I can’t wait to engage in this discussion now that they’ve brought up selling votes, since we know that Mark Udall has taken almost $1 million from unions. Udall is bought and paid for. Bring it on.”

Wadhams added, “In taking a shot a Bob Schaffer, they might as well have pointed the gun right at their own face. They have now set the standard (for the senate campaign).”

According to a press advisory, Progress Now is holding a “Government Grant Making, Corruption and Colorado State Board of Education Member Bob Schaffer” press conference outside the BOE offices tomorrow. Maybe Wadhams will crash the thing “your boss is a chickenshit” style, and off we go. Maybe by then he’ll also have a better talking point, since comparing Union donations to what Schaffer is accused of doing isn’t even sort of the same.