August 09, 2018 10:19 AM UTC

Republican Guv's Association: Slinging The BS Early, Often

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• by: Colorado Pols

FOX 31’s Joe St. George walks us through the latest ad from the Republican Governor’s Association targeting Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jared Polis in the now-familiar “hippie-punching” style we’ve side-eyed in this space before.

Under the fact-checking microscope, this ad is revealed to have some serious issues with every single one of its claims that viewers need to be aware of:

Exact quote in ad: “How Boulder is Jared Polis? – Polis is so Boulder he is skipping the Grand Junction debate the first candidate in decades to blow off the Western Slope”

St. George very generously scores this as the only “true” claim in the whole spot, though even that has a big disclaimer:

Polis will not “blow off” the Western Slope in his campaign. In fact he has agreed to a separate Grand Junction debates hosted by PBS, Colorado Mesa University and the Grand Junction Sentinel. [Pols emphasis]

Polis has also had a field office open for months in Grand Junction and tweeted out photos campaigning with his LG pick last month.

The truth here, as our readers have discussed in some depth, is that Polis will not be attending one particular debate in Grand Junction hosted by regional advocacy group Club 20. Opinions of that decision vary, but Polis will still be debating opponent Walker Stapleton in Grand Junction at the PBS/Mesa State debate. We’d say that makes the vague language in this ad false enough to call out as such, but at least St. George gives us the whole story.

As for the rest of this ad? St. George quickly dispatches with a claim we expect to hear a lot between now and the election, that Polis’ campaign pledge to move the state to renewable energy sources would “destroy energy jobs.” Reading the study cited in the ad, there’s a whole other side to the coin: the tens of thousands of new energy jobs that would be created by the switch to renewables. Much like the bogus assessment of a “Medicare for All” plan “costing trillions,” when it would in fact save trillions, dishonest actors intentionally leave out the critical second half of the equation.

It’s good to see mendacious ads getting scrutiny early in the campaign season. There will be many more.