June 14, 2022 10:45 AM UTC

The Silliest Season

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• by: Colorado Pols

There are exactly two weeks to go until the June 28th Primary Election, which means that things are starting to get predictably silly as campaigns pull out every trick at their disposal (including some that were probably best left in the bag).

For a great example of this, let’s head down to Colorado Springs and the increasingly-bitter Primary battle for CO-05 between incumbent Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn and challenger Dave Williams. According to a press release issued last week, Williams is really salty about a political ad from Lamborn:

Today, State Rep. Dave Williams announced he will be filing a criminal complaint with the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s office against Doug Lamborn for violating Colorado Revised Statute 1-13-109…

…Knowing that his campaign is failing, Doug Lamborn spent tens of thousands of dollars to broadcast an outrageous and wildly fallacious attack ad on television against Rep. Williams that tries to deflect from Lamborn’s failed record and numerous House Ethics Committee investigations.

Rep. Williams said, “Because Lamborn knows he’s in danger of losing his failed 16-year career in Congress, while facing ever-expanding congressional ethics investigations, it’s no surprise he would bald-face lie about my pro-life record and steadfast support for Trump to cover his own tracks on funding Planned Parenthood, CRT, and betraying President Trump himself.”

This is all fairly standard nonsense that you typically find when Election Day is drawing near. Here’s where things get a little unusual:

Rep. Williams’ wife, Emily, further expressed her shock and disbelief that Lamborn, a self-described Christian, would stoop so low not only because Rep. Williams has steadfastly fought for the issue of life in the State House but also due to their recent personal tragedy that their family is still recovering from.

Mrs. Williams said, “This isn’t just politics, it’s personal now and after trying for so long to have children ourselves, while suffering multiple miscarriages, disgusting lies like this from Lamborn are a hypocritical slap in the face because my husband knows firsthand that all life is precious.” [Pols emphasis]

It is pretty odd to see a campaign issue a press release quoting the candidate’s spouse. Did Lamborn run some sort of negative ad that featured Emily Williams in an inappropriate manner?

Well, no (click here to watch the ad).

Colorado Public Radio has more on the official complaint filed on Friday by the Williams campaign:

Williams alleges that ads running on television and radio that claim Williams was fired by former President Donald Trump’s Colorado campaign and that he introduced a bill at the statehouse to divert dollars from traffic violation funds away from local police to help “pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and groups supporting defund the police like “Black Lives Matter” are lies.

As near as we can follow, Williams is upset that the ad accuses him of providing funding for “pro abortion groups,” which Williams thinks is out of bounds because his wife, Emily, has had “multiple miscarriages.” We certainly sympathize with the Williams family, but it’s pretty flimsy to connect that personal history to an ad that mentions abortion funding.

In addition to filing a complaint about the ad with the El Paso County DA, Williams’s campaign also responded with its own ad going after Lamborn for, among our favorite of the incumbent’s transgressions, allowing his son to live in a storage closet in the basement of the U.S. Capitol:

Two more weeks, everybody. Just two more weeks.