February 17, 2010 02:25 AM UTC

Fun With Press Releases

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• by: Colorado Pols

Now that the 2010 campaign season has started to really get going, we’re starting to get more and more press releases from various campaigns. As we always do here at Colorado Pols, we like to take a closer look at those press releases that amuse us for one reason or another.

Today’s fun press release comes from Jesse Mallory on behalf of Republican State Treasurer candidate J.J. Ament:

Dr. Dick Murphy Sets Treasury Facts Straight, Endorses J. J. Ament

Former two-time Deputy Treasurer Refutes Central Claims of Ament’s Opponent

Centennial – Former Colorado Deputy Treasurer Dick Murphy released a letter today endorsing J. J. Ament for State Treasurer and refuting allegations made by Ament’s opponent Muhammad Ali Hasan.  

Murphy specifically refuted Hasan’s claim that Colorado has over $3.5 billion invested in ‘bailout companies.’  He went on to confirm that none of Ament’s financial work has ever been anti-TABOR or anti-taxpayer and called Hasan’s assertion of that, “dishonest and misleading.”

Murphy felt compelled to speak out after receiving Hasan’s 24-page campaign packet outlining the investments of the State Treasury and then hearing Ament and Hasan debate at a candidate forum.

“Without any education or experience in finance or institutional investing, it’s easy to misunderstand the state’s portfolio,” said Murphy.  “It is critical that a State Treasurer understand the actual contents of an investment – not just the name on the cover page.”

Murphy went on to say, “I was proud to serve Colorado’s taxpayers as Deputy for two different State Treasurers and have spent 34 years doing institutional fixed income investment.  I don’t make endorsements for this office lightly because I know what’s required to fulfill the duties of the office.”

Murphy concluded by saying, “In my professional opinion, J. J. Ament is the best candidate to return conservative investment policy to the State Treasury and be a voice of conservative fiscal policy in the statehouse.”

Dick Murphy has a Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University.  A financial and investment professional, he served as Deputy Treasurer under both Roy Romer and Mike Coffman.

The full text of his endorsement letter is below.

We’ll spare you the full endorsement letter because, frankly, who gives a shit? Now that Dick Murphy has endorsed, who is going to nab the endorsements of other former Deputy State Treasurers??? Our breath is officially held.

All jokes aside, we’re sure that Dick Murphy is a swell guy. We just find it more than a little amusing that you would send out a press release touting his endorsement for, well, anything. Murphy’s support is probably helpful in a GOP primary, but it’s not really worthy of an entire press release all on its own, is it? We wouldn’t recognize Dick Murphy if he walked in our office and ate our computer.

On another note, it’s interesting that Ament’s campaign is going out of its way to attack Ali Hasan, though we’re not entirely surprised. As we wrote earlier today, Hasan is actually well-positioned in a three-way primary where the other two candidates have similar backgrounds and appearances. That doesn’t make Hasan more qualified, of course (and quite the contrary), but sometimes just being a different option is enough to pick up a lot of votes.