The Ads You're Seeing Are A Massive GOP Head Fake

13 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

Right now, at the top of this page, there’s a pretty good chance you’re seeing an ad similar to this one:

This ad has been running in heavy circulation on our site’s Google ad spaces for the last 48 hours or so, as well as a number of much larger political news sites including Politico (screenshot taken today):

We were immediately curious about these ads, since all of the mainstream environmental advocacy organizations in the country have come out in support of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes $369 billion in funding specifically to address climate change–the most significant such investment by orders of magnitude in American history. What progressive organization would push ads featuring members of “The Squad” of far-left members of Congress calling for this bill crucial to the Democratic agenda to be killed?

Well, after a little Googling about the origins of the organization known as United for Clean Power Inc., we found the answer. As the FWIW Newsletter reported on Tuesday, United for Clean Power, Inc. is a Republican psyop operated by a marketing agency with longstanding ties to Colorado Republicans.

FWIW was able to locate the organization’s 2018 and 2019 IRS 990 forms, which reveal the organization’s only major expenditure was to pay Republican firm Majority Strategies $135,000 for “advertising.”.

According to FEC data, Majority Strategies has worked to elect countless Republican climate deniers to Congress and other elected offices, including recently for Sarah Palin’s campaign for Congress in Alaska this year. The firm last week published research urging their clients to invest in digital ads instead of exclusively focusing on traditional TV ads.

A quick search of the TRACER campaign finance database at the Colorado Secretary of State’s website reveals that Majority Strategies has a big footprint in Colorado Republican politics, working right now for GOP attorney general candidate John Kellner, the Colorado Republican Party, and the GOP’s independent expenditure committee:

Majority Strategies’ relationship with the Colorado GOP goes back to at least 2008, with hundreds of records of expenditures as well as payments by Majority Strategies to Colorado Republican committees. Former Senate President Bill Cadman, whose “side business” as a campaign consultant prospered handsomely during his leadership tenure, regularly used Majority Strategies as a vendor.

With all of this in view, we can conclude safely that this saturation-bombing digital ad campaign is exactly what it looks like: a Republican attempt to deceive left-wing Democratic voters into opposing a major Democratic policy goal. Every Republican who has complained in the last couple of months about so-called “Democratic meddling” in Republican primaries, and (checks headlines) that’s a lot of Republicans, should now have to explain how this is any more ethical. This is a Republican campaign using not just Democratic rhetoric but images of far-left public figures to falsely suggest a bill Republicans are trying desperately to kill lacks support. We’ll be standing by for the same degree of strenuously affected outrage.

The moral of the story is, don’t believe the hype–even when it appears in an ad on our website.

Which we assume will stop running soon, since the game is up in this space.

13 thoughts on “The Ads You’re Seeing Are A Massive GOP Head Fake”

JohnNorthofDenver says:

August 4, 2022 at 10:29 am

Let's say someone has an old fax machine and a piece of black paper taped at either side to make a loop… Is there a phone number for Majority Strategies?

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bullshit! says:

August 4, 2022 at 10:43 am

You forgot one thing Guvs.

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MichaelBowman says:

August 4, 2022 at 10:44 am

I’m old enough to remember the 2004 Amendment 37 campaign with the tsunami of $$ poured into commercials telling us a 10% renewable energy standard would cost Coloradans billions and drive businesses out of our state.

In other news…

Wind Energy Accounted for 34 Percent of New Utility-Scale Generation in H1 2022

Of the 15.1 GW of electric generating capacity that U.S. operators plan to retire during 2022,… Coal will account for 76%, followed by natural gas (12%) & nuclear (9%)"

Wind Accounted for 34% of New Utility-Scale Generation in H1 2022

In other, other news… (sad reacts only)

Coal industry ‘shocked and disheartened’ by Manchin climate deal

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Moderatus says:

August 4, 2022 at 11:22 am

So which is it? Is meddling bad or not? Colorado Pols wants to have it both ways too.

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1. DavidThi808 says:
  
  August 4, 2022 at 11:49 am
  
  I personally look at it from the question of how honest is it. The Democratic party recently ran ads stating that the Republican candidates they wanted to run against were right wing crazies that believed in the big lie and other things that were demonstratively false.
  
  This was a very fair and accurate picture of these candidates. And the Republican primary voters then voted for the looney tunes they wanted.
  
  Very fair & honest.
  
  This one on the other hand is trying to convince people the progressive democrats, led by the squad, are opposed to the ~~green energy~~ inflation reduction bill. That's false.
  
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2. DawnPatrol says:
  
  August 4, 2022 at 12:12 pm
  
  It’s dishonest, it’s unethical, it’s immoral, it’s deplorable, and…
  
  And you just got a tiny stiffy reading this, didn’t you?
  
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3. Gilpin Guy says:
  
  August 4, 2022 at 12:32 pm
  
  But you don't seem to take a stand on the issue being the spineless, Kevin McCarthy, wimp that you are. It's good for me but not for thee. Talk about desperately, shitting in your pants panic trying to change the subject. What a limp dick debater.
  
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kwtree says:

August 4, 2022 at 12:33 pm

I thought the “Majority Strategies” ad was weird when I saw it….seemed unlikely that the Squad would come out against a bipartisan bill, when they’ve voted for every other honest bill, and been frusrtated by inaction in Congress. But I hadn’t time to delve into it myself.

I figured I’d see a smugly self-righteous post from the usual folks on here that hate the Squad, decrying them for being “spoilers”…with the obligatory references to Jill Stein and Ralph Nader.

But that was the point, wasn’t it? To divide Democrats and stop progress in its tracks. Glad this effort didn’t get far in Colorado.

By the way, one can click on the X on the ad (still seeing it here) and tell Google you don’t want to see it anymore as it’s “inappropriate”.

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1. notaskinnycook says:
  
  August 4, 2022 at 4:58 pm
  
  I tried that; didn’t work. Curiously, as soon as this thread went up, the ad vanished. Things that make you go, “Hmmm”.
  
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Lauren Boebert is a Worthless POS says:

August 4, 2022 at 12:38 pm

As Otto von Bismarck famously said, "The biggest lies are told immediately before the wedding, right after the hunt, and in the middle of the political campaign."

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davebarnes says:

August 4, 2022 at 1:21 pm

"Right now, at the top of this page, there’s a pretty good chance you’re seeing an ad similar to this one:"

Wait! What! ColoradoPols has adverts?

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joe_burly says:

August 4, 2022 at 1:39 pm

It's funny, too, because it doesn't clearly say what they intend in the way it is written. I read it as EITHER you demand environmental justice OR you kill the reconciliation bill. So if I demand environmental justice I should not kill that bill. Got it. OK good.

They should probably go for an IF/THEN construction.

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1. Lauren Boebert is a Worthless POS says:
  
  August 4, 2022 at 2:16 pm
  
  English grammar is not their strong suit.
  
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