November 01, 2006 02:03 AM UTC

Entz Vows Not to Go Negative, Then Does

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• by: Colorado Pols

Republican Lew Entz is locked in a tough battle for SD-5 with Democrat Gail Schwartz, who had been enjoying a comfortable lead until Entz started throwing haymakers. Entz’s negative ads are reportedly helping to close the gap with Schwartz, but they aren’t gaining him many friends with the media. As the Pueblo Chieftain reports:

State Sen. Lewis Entz has gone negative in his re-election bid to the Colorado Senate despite repeated promises he wouldn’t use such tactics.

In several campaign stops and political debates with his Democratic rival, Gail Schwartz, the San Luis Valley Republican from Hooper repeatedly has denounced the numerous negative ads that have plagued both candidates in the race for months.

Entz vowed he would never go negative.

Since then, however, his campaign has sent out a mass mailing calling Schwartz an Aspen liberal who “only understands the tax-and-spend special interests of her friends in Denver and Boulder.”

Even though Entz admitted that he is responsible for the content of that flyer – it was paid for by the Committee to Elect Lewis H. Entz – he denied having seen it before it was mailed.

“That was by my committee, but I never saw it until I got it,” said Entz. “It was sent out and I didn’t have any approval of it. It shouldn’t have been sent out, but it was. I never saw it until I got it in the mail. I guess I’m responsible for it then.”