July 09, 2025 11:09 AM UTC

D'oh! Manny Makes Mountain Mistake

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• by: Colorado Pols

Longtime political observers, and readers of Colorado Pols, are probably familiar with what is (sadly) one of the more common dumb mistakes that campaigns can make in Colorado: Highlighting a mountain range in campaign materials that is not actually a landmark found in our state.

Using a geographically-incorrect image of a random mountain range is often a sign that you are farming out campaign operations to out-of-state consultants. It happens all the time, and it has for years (see HERE and HERE for but two examples). For whatever reason, this is an error that is usually made by Republican candidates; we’ve noted this mistake enough, however, that it’s fair play to point out when a Democrat also enters the “Mountain-Moving Hall of Shame.”

We hereby induct Democrat Manny Rutinel, a candidate for Congress in CO-08, into this not-particularly-exclusive club:

As Kyle Clark explains for 9News:

NEW: A Democrat running for Colorado’s most competitive congressional district got caught using a photo of Canadian mountains instead of Colorado mountains. Also, the Republican representing CO-8 just voted for nearly $1T in cuts to Medicaid and other health programs. #copolitics

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— Kyle Clark (@kylec.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 7:38 PM

Rutinel appears to have been using a real photo of the Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately, this particular photo is from Kootenay National Park…which is in British Columbia…which is in Canada. If you don’t happen to have a map handy, just know that the eighth congressional district is not in Canada.

Rutinel has already changed the photo on his ‘X’ account. Hopefully this lesson has been learned by his campaign team.

Is this a critical mistake? Of course not, but it happens enough that it always merits a mention — no matter the political affiliation of the candidate.