Notable Links

Denver Internet Marketing by Parallel Path

Arvada Boutique Clothing Store Stella B's

Shafroth Attacks Polis

by: Colorado Pols

Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 09:17:39 AM MDT

The CO-2 race, to this point, has basically been a Joan Fitz-Gerald - Jared Polis battle, with Will Shafroth seemingly content to wait it out on the sidelines.

Today Shafroth entered the fray more publicly with an attack on Polis. As the Rocky Mountain News reports:

Congressional candidate Will Shafroth plans to file a formal election complaint against rival Jared Polis this week, charging various campaign finance violations.
Shafroth said Polis' campaign records lack "transparency," which he finds bothersome because Polis was chief backer of Amendment 41, an ethics amendment voters approved in 2006...
...Shafroth plans to file his complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Among his charges is that Polis failed to disclose the occupations or employers of 42 donors who contributed nearly $50,000.
Polis is the ninth-worst House candidate in the nation for disclosing occupation information, according to opensecrets.org, which calls itself a guide to money in U.S. elections. His compliance rate, however, is 88.2 percent.
"I'm not saying we're all perfect," Shafroth said. "In each campaign you'll have a few donors (whose occupations) have not been identified. But this is not four or five people, and this is money donated months ago."

This is yet another example of the Polis campaign needlessly opening themselves up for criticism, but more than anything we see this attack as a signal from Shafroth's campaign that it is time to get their boy a little more press.

Shafroth is raising good money and avoiding the Fitz-Gerald/Polis battle in a manner that allows him to avoid much of the mudslinging, but the downside to that approach is that it doesn't help him get recognized--and Shafroth is a virtual unknown among average voters. We've heard rumors for a long time that Shafroth's name ID numbers are dismal, and today's attack may be the first of many efforts to try to change that.

Colorado Pols :: Shafroth Attacks Polis

Tags: will shafroth, jared polis, joan fitz-gerald, (All Tags)

Share this post:

Shafroth Attacks Polis | 24 comments

Stupid is as stupid does

A stupid attack on Polis who was too stupid to hire people to do simple compliance.

Shafroth will improve his name ID when he starts to spend the million or so dollars he has on hand. His TV team is great. Check out all three candidate websites and you can see for yourself whose media team is doing the best work in this race.

by: dumbfounded @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 16:20:14 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

At least he didn't hire the Armstrong compliance team!!!

Armstrong was ranked the worst in the Country.

by: MichaelScott @ Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 14:36:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Good point

Although Jared is ranked 9th worst in the nation. Still not great considering how many people are running for Congress nationwide.

by: StanTheMan @ Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 17:06:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Really...

Ok let play FEC 101... I am an FEC dork with the best of them and after seeing this I just did a quick check. Really... this is a total disgrace on Will's Part.

Will claims that Jared took PAC money. His staff is clearly amateur for claiming a candidate campaign account is a PAC. The PAC line is also used for Candidate Committee money (from Angie Paccione, Pat Schroeder, Joe Kennedy and John Salazar) and they clearly did not take a look at that. It is a shock of how bad the RMN reporting is to not catch the clear untrue fact.

What is funny is they do not talk about Fitz-Gerald who has over 40 (quick count) Info requested. Will is picking on Polis and is putting forth a call that is not the law. The law states that you have to make an attempt to get all of a donor's info. He has many missing names or has many people listed as community volunteers...which to me is very suspect.

by: Coloradobaywatch @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 16:30:45 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Me thinks

you didn't read the whole article. It's a shock!

The Rocky noted Will's claim that those candidate committee's include PAC funds.

What is funny is the nothing to see here response from the Polis campaign. Why can you not dislose who Polis spent $21,00 on? Or why his rhetoric on Contractors doesn't match his actions while in Iraq? And I find the 100% contributions claim laughable after he's dumped nearly $400,000 of his own money into the campaign.

"Suddenly, it may be cool to be American again" - William J. Kole

by: Go Blue @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 16:49:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

You caught it

You got to it before I could. The story wasn't saying that political committees are PACs, rather that both those candidates took money from PACs and then gave some of that money to Polis. Get it?

by: StanTheMan @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 17:09:39 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Go Blue and Stan are correct

It is called co-mingling of funds.

by: Roger D @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 17:29:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Funny

I quick counted 10 time where she missed employer & occupation in her 3 quarters so far. Jared did over 40 in one quarter. See the difference?

by: StanTheMan @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 17:32:29 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Why only person attacks on JP

As a liberal Boulderite I was liking WS and JP in this race, and have been waiting to hear more from Will about his stances and leaning to JP.
But this strategy of only attacking JP is baffling to me and completely turning me off. If Joan even has less info, why only talk about JP?
I was hoping that the two progressive Boulder candidates would talk more about our values- which to do not include a close relationship with oil and gas, but not a peep about of Will's camp about JFG oil and gas/ mining ties, only personal attacks on JP- has completely turned me off.
boulder being a close knit community, I am sure a lot of people are feeling the same way today.
this may raise name ID but it may also turn off people in Boulder that are on the fence for this race.

by: bluehotmama @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 17:25:56 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

You are saying that candidates like Will should just sit back and let the rules be broken so as not to offend anyone?

by: StanTheMan @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 17:33:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

no not at all

but if what coloradobaywatch says is correct and JFG has over 40 of the same thing, than i don't understand the strategy of only attacking JP.- i think that in boulder that will backfire

by: bluehotmama @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 17:39:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

If..

Yeah, that might make sense if true. I just did a quick skim through her 3 reports and only found 10 times where there was no occupation or employer listed. CBW slyly only said times when occupation isn't listed. If that is the criteria, then Jared's numbers go through the roof.

Check out opensecrets.com to get an ubaised look.

http://opensecrets.org/races/s...

Joan's quality of disclosure is 99%.
Will's quality of disclosure is 98%.
Jared's quality of disclosure is 88%.

Don't believe the spin of folks like coloradobaywatch.

by: StanTheMan @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 17:46:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It appears no rules were broken.

JFG has 45 "requests for information" on her FEC report. That means they could not find the occupation of the donor. JP has 42 "requests for information" according to the Shafroth complaint. So, I do not understand the Shafroth charge or what you are all getting uptight about.

Has anyone looked at Udall, Perlmutter or DeGette? My guess is they have "Request for Info" on as many or more.

I think this shows a lack of understanding on the part Shafroth's compliance team.

Also, where did they get the 13% percent of donors with no information on JP? If he has 42 donors with no occupation and has over 1000 donors that is no where near 13%. More like less than 1%. The Rocky Mountain News article is a joke.

by: Abraham Van Helsing @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 17:49:58 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Stop projecting

This drag down everyone else argument is tired. Why can't anyone from the Polis camp put forward a simple answer to Will's claims?

Why won't Polis disclose where $21,000 went?

Why does Polis say one thing about Iraq War Contractors but then used them on his vacation to Iraq?

Why is Polis bragging about being 100% financed by individual contributors when has taken committee funds (which includes PAC funds no matter how you spin) and also tripping the Millionaire Amendment by contributing nearly $400,000 to his own campaign?

Both Joan and Will have been upfront about their campaign finance details. Both have given honest answers about their supportors. Polis is still dodging questions about why Alex Cranberg has given him contrbutions.

For a guy who claims "ethics reform" as a major reason to elect him, he's not transparent and he's not being honest with the voters. His rhetoric doesn't match his actions.

At the beginning of the campaign (go back and check my comments) I was excited about the dynamics of JP, JFG, and WS. They seemed to all encompass the values of the Democratic party. I've become rather disillusioned with Polis since then (as apparent) because of actions like this.

"Suddenly, it may be cool to be American again" - William J. Kole

by: Go Blue @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 18:23:31 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Well

They said 13% of that particular report. OpenSecrets.org says that he is at 11% non-disclosure for all three quarters. Joan is at 1% and Will is at 2%.

http://www.opensecrets.org/rac...

Jared is on the list of worst disclosure of all House races in the nation:

http://www.opensecrets.org/ove...

Unless, of course, you think OpenSecrets.org is an anti-ethics group. Seriously though, get over the spin. Jared is disclosing poorly, Joan and Will are not.

by: StanTheMan @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 19:18:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

I think we can call OpenSecrets a fair arbiter of disclosure

I was concerned all along about both who Jared was raising money from (swiftboaters et.al.) and he blind in-kind spending.

With all of his in kinds, most of mich were not reported with any specificity, he could have failed to reported plenty inadvertantly and may have triggered the millionaire's ammendment earlier.

by: Danny the Red (hair) @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 20:57:29 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

I think WS found something minor that sounds bigger

The raw percentages in opensecrets makes JP look "much worse" than WS or JFG. So the simple story sounds good and gets traction.

It strikes me as much ado about nothing - the people's names and amounts are listed. And understandably it's not a top priority to get every last one.

I think this is more of a story because Will is finally doing something than the issue itself.

Where all the cool kids will be on Saturday - Code War!

by: DavidThi808 @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 21:30:19 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Right..

We all know you decided to support Jared, but don't let that interfere with your reasoning. He is one of the worst in the nation in FEC disclosures. This may be a minor issue to some folks, but to others that think open government, it is critical. In addition, some people just don't like hypocrites. Jared has shown time and time again that he doesn't think the rules apply to him. This sort of hypocrisy is not something we need more of in Congress.

by: StanTheMan @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 21:33:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

If you feel that strongly, you should say it twice.

Where all the cool kids will be on Saturday - Code War!

by: DavidThi808 @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 23:05:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Hah

by: StanTheMan @ Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 00:58:30 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Right..

by: StanTheMan @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 21:33:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

I haven't given Jared a free pass

I was zinging him this weekend over something. I just see this particular issue as a numerical difference that looks large but doesn't mean much.

Now if it turns out that the contributors that didn't show employer all turn out to be working for Halliburton or something like that, then you've got a very valid issue.

Where all the cool kids will be on Saturday - Code War!

by: DavidThi808 @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 23:06:44 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

I don't think it is minor

but I also don't question DavidT's motives.

I disagree with him on the level of seriousness about this, but I also don't believe his position on it is primarily dictated by his support for Polis.

my experience with David's posts on this board is that they are reasoned and not necessarily fabricated to reflect his particlar candidate bias.

I am a Fitz-Gerald supporter, but I don't take issue with David on this matter.

Hard to believe, but some of us actually take positions consistent with our idealogy/principles/beliefs regardless of how those either comport with or conflict with our support for a particular candidate.

by: Roger D @ Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 00:19:14 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

thank you

Where all the cool kids will be on Saturday - Code War!

by: DavidThi808 @ Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 03:28:10 AM UTC

[ Parent ]