March 10, 2008 06:17 PM UTC

Shafroth Attacks Polis

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• by: Colorado Pols

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.