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September 08, 2008 05:12 PM UTC

Udall Scores Major Wildlife Employee Endorsement

  • 19 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the Aspen Times reports:

A coalition of about 70 retired Colorado Division of Wildlife employees have endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall. He is running against Bob Schaffer, a former congressman from Fort Collins, to replace U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.

A letter signed by the DOW retirees, which includes some Republicans and several from the Western Slope, said that an evaluation of the two candidates’ records and statements led them to support Udall.

That evaluation focused on the two candidates’ records and positions over “hunting, angling and the constitutional right to bear arms,” but that it “primarily considered management of federal lands and protection of wildlife and wildlife habitat.”

“It is our objective to ensure that the future of wildlife resources, the traditions of hunting, angling and the right to bear arms are protected,” the letter said. “Election of Mark Udall as United States senator from Colorado will be a very important step in accomplishing this objective.”

Included in that group, which has about 2,000 years of cumulative experience at the DOW, are John Mumma, of Durango, and Perry Olson, of Englewood – two former directors of the agency. Also endorsing Udall is John Seidel, a former area wildlife manager for the DOW. Eddie Kochman, the DOW’s former aquatic wildlife manager, helped organize the letter.

John Smeltzer, who retired as assistant director of field operations from DOW in 2004 and who is a registered Republican, said he is going to vote for the John McCain-Sarah Palin presidential ticket, but that he plans to cast his ballot for Mark Udall in Colorado’s U.S. Senate race. [Pols emphasis]

Comments

19 thoughts on “Udall Scores Major Wildlife Employee Endorsement

      1. did you even READ the article?

        “It is our objective to ensure that the future of wildlife resources, the traditions of hunting, angling and the right to bear arms are protected,” the letter said. “Election of Mark Udall as United States senator from Colorado will be a very important step in accomplishing this objective.”

        This is a sportsman’s issue. And the people who value sportsman ideals are flocking to Udall in greater numbers.

  1. It doesn’t sound good for Obama.  When people who would normally vote for the Demoratic ticet but they are abandoning the party ticket for McCain/Palin – this isn’t shaping up well for Obama.

    Further, do you really think that when people are defecting this helps Udall?

    I think this trend needs to be stopped or everyone down ticket will lose votes too.

    1. It’s part of the story. They are bringing it to people’s attention so that they can do something about it. Not reporting it does not make it go away.

      1. I would expect state employees to back Udall but it is alarming they are leaving Obama Biden for McCain Palin.

        And I don’t think it is “reporting” per se as perpetuating the popularity of McCain Palin.  Which is very bad…

        1. Nowhere in that story did it say anyone was “leaving” the Dem ticket to vote for McCain. If anything, I would argue that the person quoted was probably a Republican, but was going to cross party lines to vote for senate. Just because stories don’t have the spin you were hoping for doesn’t mean Pols should stop posting them. Ever heard of cognitive dissonance?

          Pols does not decide how voters think. Nearly everyone who posts here has already made up their mind, and I would say the vast majority of non-posting readers are also decided.

          When you post stuff like that, it just proves the point of some of the conservative bloggers on here who say that it’s turning into ColoradoKos.

          1. What I mean here is the same effect that Repubs were having by pointing out Obama’s celebrity status.  This strategy is deadly for the R’s because everyone wants to be associated with celebrities.

            Let’s hope that Repubs keep this up.  It will really bolster the Obama ticket.

            In the same vein when Pols or other people are pointing out that people who are leaving Obama for McCain.  

            Don’t think that our posts don’t have an effect.  I heard that Palin was chosen because of a blogger.

    2. Imagine the caterwauling from our right-of-center readers had we left that out.

      We’re in no position to “stop” anything. Despite our regular branding as a liberal mouthpiece, we don’t write the news articles we cite, and we report bad news for both sides. The up-until-now dearth of good news for Republicans makes it seem otherwise, but that is also not our fault.

    3. Pols – please stop pointing this out…

      I don’t know what’s worse:

      1) Don’t tell you any bad news – you don’t want to hear it (shades of G.W. Bush).

      2) Screw reporting all the news, become a liberal mouthpiece (shades of Fox News).

      Put a cork in it – the purpose of this site is to talk about what’s actually happening and to include all points of view.

    4. OK, that makes no sense at all.

      “Please don’t report on a Republican planning to vote for the Democrat for Senate, because it will hurt Obama” … HOW exactly?

  2. I am truly and sincerely happy for Mark Udall.

    However, since when is the endorsment of 70 retired and I am sure truly great old guys a “major endorsement”?

    1. in the sense that these guys have been the leaders in the sportsmen’s community for decades.  Virtually every major decision-maker at the DOW from the past 30 years has decided to back Udall. They understand wildlife management and strongly support the rights of sportsmen.  He’ll now be able to openly campaign as the choice for sportsmen and conservationists, something he has only done in a peripheral way thu far.

      Additionally, the idea that a registered Republican such as Mr. Smeltzer would cross party lines to support Udall while still planning to vote for McCain/Palin is newsworthy.  It illustrates how poor of a choice Schaffer is for sportsmen/conservationist voting bloc.  It also shows that the Obama/Biden campaign has done nothing to reach out to sportsmen and that sportsmen don’t need to vote along party lines.  Not reporting that would be idiotic and would actually be a loss for the Udall team.    

  3. This is a major endorsement as long as Schaffer doesn’t have anything similar from his own, simiarly-situated advocacy groups.

    If Schaffer can find some hunting types to line up in support of him, that’ll cancel this out. But so far I haven’t seen any.

    (And don’t get any bright ideas and use stock advertising images of hunters, Bob:

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/…  

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