July 31, 2008 03:18 AM UTC

Udall Screwed By...Pelosi?

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• by: Colorado Pols

THURSDAY UPDATE: Coverage of this story in today’s Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News wasn’t very good for Udall. Although his side of the story did make it in, the articles as written focused overwhelmingly on Dick Wadhams’ gloating over the ‘missed’ vote, with Rocky correspondent Ed Sealover adding helpfully that “there are some political promises [Udall] shouldn’t make.” Do tell, Ed.

We think Udall’s best option at this point is to try to get yesterday’s motion to adjourn reconsidered some way, although success there isn’t likely–his own Democratic leadership was by all accounts responsible for unexpectedly rescheduling the vote. But the more noise he makes about being ‘thrown under the bus,’ and quickly, the better this will ultimately shake out for him. Unfortunately for Udall, though, the sound bite (spelled 527 TV spot) version of this incident doesn’t read charitably.

UPDATE: The Udall campaign just circulated copies of a letter he wrote to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi protesting her refusal to extend voting time, and a statement he read on the floor afterwards. Clearly written more politely than he would have preferred, you can almost hear the clenched teeth.

As the Denver Post reports:

Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall missed a critical vote today that might have kept Congress from going into summer recess until it passed an energy bill, breaking a vow he made in a recent debate.

Udall spokeswoman Taylor West said the Boulder County lawmaker was on his way back to Washington at the time and that the vote was called with only 10 minutes’ notice. Udall asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to delay the vote without success, and the resolution passed by one vote, 213-212.

With gas prices the No. 1 financial worry of voters, promising to try to keep lawmakers in session until they took action was a bold stroke, but missing that vote could be an equally costly political mistake by the five-term congressman.

Udall’s staff said the Democrat stayed in Colorado to attend several campaign-related events, including a meeting with business leaders and a fundraising event – which Udall’s Republican opponent quickly jumped on.

“While Coloradans are paying $4 a gallon for gasoline, I guess it wasn’t important enough for (Udall) to show up for work this week,” said Dick Wadhams, the campaign manager for Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer. “He made a commitment Monday, he didn’t even show up for work Tuesday and then he missed the vote today.”

West said that her boss would send a letter to Pelosi today objecting to the fact that the vote wasn’t delayed long enough for him to make it from the Washington airport to the Capitol.

We hear there’s going to be a good deal more than just a letter to Pelosi–the Udall Senate campaign and congressional staff alike are bitterly upset about this, and rightly so. It’s quite rare to have one-vote margins like this in the House, and in the context of his debate pledge to Schaffer to oppose adjourning for the summer without an energy bill, this a nasty and ill-timed predicament for Udall. Check out the absolutely giddy press release we got from Camp Schaffer this afternoon if you don’t believe us (follows). You can be sure they are going milk this situation for every conceivable drop, and judging from this release they’re quite happy to do so entirely devoid of context.

Having said that, it also looks at first glance like it’s not Udall’s fault. If he’s smart he’ll absolutely freak out on everyone responsible for pulling/enabling/not stopping this, regardless of party affiliation.

More details to come…

For Immediate Release:

July 30, 2008

Contact: Dick Wadhams

Kelly Brady

(720) 377-1600

“U-TURN UDALL” DUCKS VOTE, RENEGES ON DEBATE PLEDGE

Had pledged to vote against adjournment for August recess until energy bill passed, fails to show up for vote today

ENGLEWOOD – Boulder Liberal Congressman Mark Udall reneged on a pledge to vote against an adjournment resolution until Congress passed an energy bill when he failed to show up for the vote today in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Udall’s vote could have killed the adjournment resolution since it passed by only one vote, 213-212.

“Boulder Liberal Mark Udall not only did not fulfill his pledge to vote against adjourning for the summer until an energy bill passed, he didn’t even bother to show up for the vote,” said Schaffer for Senate campaign manager Dick Wadhams.  “Boulder Liberal Udall’s u-turns are pretty common but this is extraordinarily low even by his standards.”

During a debate on Monday, July 28 at KDVR-TV Fox 31, Bob Schaffer challenged Udall to vote against adjourning for the summer recess until an energy bill was passed.  Udall agreed to the challenge.

Udall did not show up for any recorded votes yesterday, Tuesday, July 29 in the U.S. House of Representatives and failed to vote today on the adjournment resolution.  

“Apparently it wasn’t a priority for Boulder Liberal Udall to show up for the job he was elected to do this week before Congress goes on a month long vacation,” said Wadhams.  “While Coloradans continue to pay nearly $4 a gallon for gas, Boulder Liberal Udall didn’t think it was important enough this week to show up and fight for an increase in domestic oil exploration.”

“Boulder Liberal Udall decided to start his August vacation early by not showing up for work yesterday or this morning,” said Wadhams.

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