April 04, 2008 08:23 PM UTC

The "Beauprez-Gate" Ad: Bogus, Too

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Rocky Mountain News reports:

The ad was widely aired during Colorado’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign, accusing now-Gov. Bill Ritter of letting an illegal immigrant heroin dealer plea bargain down to a minor crime and then go on to be arrested for sexual assault on a child.

In federal court testimony on Thursday, a Republican Party contract researcher said the ad was not backed up by public records, but the Bob Beauprez campaign ran it anyway.

“The ad was incorrect” in that the sexual assault charge was dropped, said Bill Winkler, who researched the plea bargain case for the state Republican Party. The campaign ran the ad against the advice of its own counsel, he said…

On Oct. 6, 2006, with Beauprez’s campaign double-digits behind in the polls, Marshall was desperate to turn it around with information about the plea deal, Winkler testified. The ad was prepared and sent to stations ready to run but awaiting confirmation the information was correct, Winkler said. Then, Winkler, the party and the campaign received public record information from California that did not support the ad, Winkler said.

The Oct. 6 fax shows the names did not match – Walter Ramon, not Ramo, was listed as the alias of Eugene Estrada, not Carlos Estrada Medina. In addition, the sexual assault charges against Estrada had been dropped.

Winkler testified he was concerned about the ad because under Colorado law, running an incorrect political ad can be a crime. Winkler said that’s why he organized a conference call with Marshall, state Republican Party Chairman Hans Gullickson, party spokesman Bryant Adams and party attorney Ryan Call on Oct. 6.

“We had everyone sign off” on not running the ad, Winkler said, including Call.

Winkler said that on Oct. 10 he heard the ad was running anyway…

We’re pretty sure the statute of limitations on Colorado’s false political ads law is up in this case, so the net effect will probably only be to make the overwhelming majority of Coloradans who already think Bob Beauprez was a clown and his 2006 campaign for governor an historic joke…really think so.