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October 26, 2010 02:04 AM UTC

Jumping the Gun With Libby Szabo

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

TUESDAY UPDATE: Reporter Lynn Bartels of the Denver newspaper is up with a new story today about these basically illegible mailers sent by GOP House candidate Libby Szabo–this one could be quite a bit worse for Szabo than the “false statement false statement” brouhaha described in our post below. It appears that Szabo has been using a picture of a bill signing featuring Gov. Bill Ritter and Szabo’s opponent, Rep. Sara Gagliardi, next to lists of all kinds of horrible things Gagliardi has supposedly done. Here’s an example we received this weekend, Bartels posted a different flyer using the same photo:

The women in the center of this photo, standing directly behind Gov. Ritter, is Lauren Lollini, who as Bartels reports is one of 18 people who contracted hepatitis C due to the actions of a surgical technician at Rose Medical Center. The technician, Kristen Parker, passed the infection after stealing and using their pain medication. In response to Parker’s crimes, Rep. Gagliardi got legislation passed to tighten monitoring of surgical technicians. This is the photo of that bill-signing–obviously to the Szabo campaign, the circumstances of that bill signing were irrelevant. They just wanted a picture of Ritter and Gagliardi together.

But Ms. Lollini seems likely to make Szabo pay for misusing her picture, as an innocent bystander justifiably proud of what the photo actually depicts. Original post follows.

Here’s the latest mailer from GOP HD-27 candidate Libby Szabo–the problem here may not be easy to spot, and not just because it’s the most cluttered and amateurish flyer you’ve ever seen. You’ll be pleased to note that Barack Obama is nowhere in this flyer compared to “The Antichrist,” so at least that’s something.

Spot the problem? In this official flyer from Szabo’s campaign, it’s asserted that Jefferson County DA Scott Storey is “currently investigating” opponent Sara Gagliardi for “knowingly lying.”

The problem is, we seriously doubt anyone is ‘investigating’ Sara Gagliardi. There’s a difference between anybody who wants to merely filing a complaint, and a prosecutor actually investigating a complaint. Everybody with any experience with these things knows that complaints are filed like they’re nothing during every election, but actual investigations under the statute outlawing “knowingly false statements”–let alone convictions–are practically unheard of. Most district attorneys prefer to spend resources on more serious crimes, and are loathe to give the appearance of taking a side politically. All of this would make the allegation that Gagliardi is being ‘investigated’ itself a “false statement,” wouldn’t it? Oops!

There is a case in El Paso County that’s been confirmed under investigation, the mutual allegations of plagiarism between Republican Owen Hill and Libertarian Doug Randall, but that’s a much different case than some he-said-she-said about a mailer that was, in all likelihood, sent by a 527–just like the mailers Arvada residents are getting saying Sara Gagliardi wants to eat their children.

Also, 527 mailers are legible, which really helps.

Comments

12 thoughts on “Jumping the Gun With Libby Szabo

  1. In the part that’s covered up, do they say what the complaint actually entails?  I’m curious because the plea for a full investigation implies that it’s not being done.

    If that’s the charge it should be covered a little, tiny bit.  You know, if you’re asking people to call the guy.  “Sir?  Could you please investigate something against Gagliardi?  But before, could you tell me what the problem is?”  Seems dumb.  Why not tell people to drive by her house to see her pant smoke?

  2. As Pols states, there have been tons of 527 mailers–on BOTH sides. There are almost too many lies to count in this one.

    Seems like Szabo was so giddy to attack Gagliardi that she forgot that putting your own name, face, and campaign money on something like this looks awful.

  3. Is going to make a wonderful representative. Libby Szabo has more integrity in her little finger than Colorado Pols will ever have. She is warm and genuine and always smiling.

    You’re right to be afraid of her, so I understand the smear job Pols.

    1. I agree that Libby is nice.  So is Sara.  Neither is running against a blog for that seat.

      Oh, and it’s not a “smear job” if it’s her flier.  Are you now suggesting that someone surreptitiously put Libby’s picture and name on it, or that all complaints are serious business and should be treated as guilty until proven innocent?  That could be fun.

      No, I’m sure you aren’t actually saying anything and how dare I read your sentences as something not gibberish!!!!

      1. Ken Buck compares homosexuality to alcoholism, and GOPwarrior says that we are “smearing him” by talking about it. Apparently it’s our fault that Buck says stupid things, just like it’s our fault that Libby Szabo sends out an incomprehensible mailer. He just likes the phrase “smear job” — even if he doesn’t know what it means.  

        1. Why is it always that “we are afraid of ____” if we write something negative about someone or something? We made fun of Alvin Greene, the Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina. Are we afraid of Alvin Greene? Not so much.

          A corollary: If we write something positive about someone or something, does that mean that they are afraid of us?

    2. Certainly not me….and I live in HD 27.  Hopefully the voters of this district will have the good sense that the voters of her previous campaign (for State Senate) had and tell her: “No Thanks.”

      Sara Gagliardi had done a very good job representing her district.  She is accessible, open and responsive.  She deserves to be retained.

  4. I admit that I only met Libby Szabo once, during her 2008 campaign, but I don’t remember her looking so pleasant and relatively slim – probably just being catty, but I wonder if her photo on the mailer has been re-touched . . .

  5. It’s “accessible”, not “accesable”

    But I guess if you aren’t worried about being accurate on the big things, you wouldn’t worry about the small ones either…

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