July 21, 2025 12:30 PM UTC

Even More Canadian Mountains, Distant Eastern Plains Edition

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• by: Colorado Pols

Earlier this month, Democratic state representative and congressional candidate Manny Rutinel was given a much-deserved rhetorical spanking by 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark after committing one of the oldest, most avoidable, and yet all too common faux pas in Colorado politics: campaign materials featuring landscape photos of mountains not located in Colorado. In our two decades of covering Colorado campaigns and their sometimes regrettable, other times just plain silly miscues, the “moving mountain” gaffe has been a hallmark of indifferent consultant-managed campaigns going back to 2008’s Bob Schaffer and 2010’s Scott McInnis.

Today’s entrant for the moving-mountain booby prize is Republican State Sen. Byron Pelton, who represents Senate District 1 covering the remote expanses of northeast Colorado, much of which is considered a “national sacrifice zone” due to the presence of nuclear missile siloes that would be targeted for destruction in a nuclear war. It’s also so far away from Colorado’s famous mountains that you can barely see the highest peaks of the Front Range on a clear day.

That’s the best defense we can come up with for the banner of a press release from Sen. Pelton this morning:

Featuring a lovely image of mountains in…you guessed it, Banff National Park, Canada:

Again, from much of Sen. Pelton’s district, the Colorado Rockies are at best little bumps on a distant flat horizon. But as sharp-eyed readers may remember, these same Canadian mountains were previously used for the cover of the 2014 right-wing schlockumentary Rocky Mountain Heist:

So really, there’s no excuse for continuing to make this mistake with mountains that are not only very plainly not located in Colorado, but iconic in their own right. It is clear to us that the only way to make lazy politicos and staff respect Colorado’s priceless landscapes is via good old-fashioned shame.

There’s one way to make this easy: next time, Google “Mount Sneffels” and avoid the embarrassment to your candidate.

But sadly, we’re almost certain to be back again in the future with another campaign who didn’t check twice.