June 25, 2008 01:51 AM UTC

Enviros Put Big Ol' Pricetag on Musgrave's Head

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

If it isn’t the gay rights groups, it’s somebody else. Give Musgrave credit for this: No Colorado politician in recent memory been so adept at royally pissing off so many different interest groups.

As The Ft. Collins Coloradoan reports:

An environmental group is planning to spend half a million dollars or more attacking U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave between now and November.

In filings Friday with the Federal Election Commission, the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund said it is spending $212,000 to produce and air television commercials criticizing Musgrave, a three-term Republican incumbent who’s being challenged by Democrat Betsy Markey. That money will pay for air time over the next two weeks, with more money to follow, the group’s leader said Monday.

Musgrave “has repeatedly voted with big oil and other polluters at the expense of the environment, a record which earned her a score of zero on our 2007 conservation report card,” said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the action fund…

…Schlickeisen said the initial $212,000 ad campaign will run the next two weeks on Denver television stations. He said his group plans to spend at least $500,000 targeting Musgrave between now and November.

The group is airing two anti-Musgrave ads attacking her for taking more than $165,000 in contributions from energy companies while voting for tax breaks for those companies and against a bill that would have required auto manufacturers to meet higher fuel mileage standards…

…John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University, said the plan to spend upwards of $500,000 against Musgrave is an unusually high amount.

“That’s an awful lot of money for one group to be targeting one race,” he said. “They must want her out very badly.”

Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund is the political arm of Defenders of Wildlife, a group that advocates for protection of native plants and animals. The fund gained national attention in 2006 when it spent about $1.5 million successfully targeting Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Musgrave was among their top four targets in 2006, but the action fund decided to focus its resources on Pombo, Schlickeisen said.

This year, Colorado’s 4th Congressional District race is the group’s No. 2 priority, after the New Mexico Senate race, he said.