As McCain Cuts Spending In Colorado, His Poor Spokespeople Stammer On

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by: Colorado Pols

As The Denver Post reports, John McCain’s campaign is cutting back in Colorado…just like every once-competitive tight Republican race:

Despite assertions that it was not cutting back on resources in the state, John McCain’s presidential campaign has drastically slashed television advertising at Colorado’s big three stations.

At the same time, national Republicans have canceled $600,000 worth of ads supporting incumbent GOP Rep. Marilyn Musgrave’s re-election bid. And the campaign arm of Senate Democrats pulled out of the Mark Udall-Bob Schaffer race, where recent polls show Udall, a Democrat, with a wide lead. Colorado’s days as a battleground state for the Nov. 4 election may be waning.[Pols emphasis]

McCain, who trails Barack Obama by an average of 5 percentage points in Colorado polls, this week bought a total of $305,550 worth of ads at KUSA-Channel 9, KCNC-Channel 4 and KMGH-Channel 7, according to records. That is a 46 percent decrease from the week before and a 56 percent slide from two weeks ago…

…”What this means is that the McCain campaign has sparse resources and is beginning to write places off,” said Jennifer Duffy, managing editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “Colorado polling is consistently looking bad for McCain. So it doesn’t surprise me that they are putting their resources elsewhere.”

You have to feel sorry for the McCain spokespeople at this point, because they’re left sounding a little like the old Iraqi Public Information Minister:

Members of both the local and national McCain campaign have repeatedly denied they would – or did – shift or cut back on resources, including ads, in Colorado. When asked about the drop at the three stations Wednesday, Tom Kise, spokesman for the campaign, refused to answer the question and instead discussed the ads themselves.[Pols emphasis]

“We are not pulling ads and will be on the air in Colorado through Election Day. While we won’t be discussing specifics of any buy, we reserve the right, like all campaigns do, including the Obama camp, to make strategic moves on a daily basis with our paid media efforts,” Kise said.

Not only are we not cutting back our ads, we’re actually winning in Colorado. In fact, we’ve already won. You just haven’t been told yet.

19 thoughts on “As McCain Cuts Spending In Colorado, His Poor Spokespeople Stammer On”

redstateblues says:

October 23, 2008 at 10:22 pm

We need every vote we can get. McCain could stop coming here, stop airing ads here, and do everything short of buying the Broncos and moving them to Phoenix, and still might win if people don’t get out there and vote.

Make sure everyone you know, who is eligible, votes early or on Election Day.

If McCain is giving up, that means Obama needs our votes more than ever–because he’ll be counting on them to win.

Even if Colorado is slowly fading from its battleground status, that doesn’t mean we should throw in the towel. Let’s just pretend we’re still fighting that uphill battle–or we could get a stomach churning surprise on election night.

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1. DavidThi808 says:
  
  October 23, 2008 at 10:57 pm
  
  Lets keep working – I’m hoping that number hits 65% before election day.
  
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  1. redstateblues says:
    
    October 23, 2008 at 10:59 pm
    
    47.9% voted early in 2004.
    
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droll says:

October 23, 2008 at 10:45 pm

just to add to the pile. Fox 31 is reporting a cut as well.

Between Oct. 17th and Oct. 27th, the ad buy which covers both McCain and GOP ads declined 35 percent.

http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/m…

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1. SSG_Dan says:
  
  October 24, 2008 at 12:47 am
  
  The definitely carry the water for them…their morning show take on “Pierre Cardin the Tailor” was to post a poll where you could say the scandal over Palin’s clothers was either “Style” or “Sexist”.
  
  Then again, FOX31 is an O&O of NewsCorp, the company that won an employment case by declaring in court that they are free to lie or distort in news coverage.
  
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  1. redstateblues says:
    
    October 24, 2008 at 12:50 am
    
    Fox 31 was sold by News Corp earlier this year, to Oak Hill Capital Partners.
    
    They kept the Fox, but Murdoch no longer owns them.
    
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  2. droll says:
    
    October 24, 2008 at 3:45 am
    
    not the national news (if that’s what you’d call it). Cute poll (what type makes a wry, sarcastic smile?).
    
    Anyway, local Fox news leans surprisingly far to the left, meaning slightly left of the center. I’d say local channel 7 is the most Republican.
    
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TakeBackTheHouse says:

October 24, 2008 at 1:29 am

Due to “space limitations”

Really.

AP

John McCain’s election night watch party might be missing John McCain. Instead of appearing before a throng of supporters at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix on the evening of Nov. 4, the Republican presidential nominee plans to deliver postelection remarks to a small group of reporters and guests on the hotel’s lawn.

Aides said Thursday that the arrangement was due to space limitations and that McCain might drop by the election watch party at some other point.

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1. redstateblues says:
  
  October 24, 2008 at 1:31 am
  
  It might as well have said “…plans to deliver his concession speech to a small group of reporters and guests on the hotel’s lawn.”
  
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2. Colorado Pols says:
  
  October 24, 2008 at 1:39 am
  
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3. Aristotle says:
  
  October 24, 2008 at 1:52 am
  
  McCain’s campaign sure has been tanking, but I can’t recall any other doomed presidential candidate in my lifetime who so clearly telegraphed his low expectations for himself so early.
  
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4. parsingreality says:
  
  October 24, 2008 at 4:22 am
  
  heads for one of his nine houses. Tells supporters to vote for whomever they please.
  
  Might as well.
  
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DavidThi808 says:

October 24, 2008 at 1:56 am

from WJLA ABC News

Alexandria – We have the tape of a 911 call made by John McCain’s brother earlier this week.

He called the police emergency line because he was angry he was stuck in traffic.

The 911 call came into the City of Alexandria on Oct. 21st That’s creating some buzz because it appears to come from Joe McCain, John McCain’s brother.

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DavidThi808 says:

October 24, 2008 at 5:31 am

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1. Jambalaya says:
  
  October 24, 2008 at 6:30 am
  
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  1. Ralphie says:
    
    October 24, 2008 at 6:45 am
    
    But it’s about damned time we had a President that people actually like.
    
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TomS says:

October 24, 2008 at 6:26 am

Today, I received a robocall (or more specifically, my wife did) inviting me to a “McCain victory rally” at the National Western Stock Show complex this weekend. Now, being a Democrat, this was curious (although my wife is a Republican, but planning on voting for Obama). But what is more curious is that I live in Ohio. Couldn’t they have seen the 440 area code when they were programming their phones?

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1. Jambalaya says:
  
  October 24, 2008 at 6:29 am
  
  …if McCain needn’t be present at his election night party, his supporters should be allowed to phone it in too.
  
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  1. Gilpin Guy says:
    
    October 24, 2008 at 7:08 am
    
    I had this image of a lawn covered with old time phones off the cradle while McCain droned on about Joe the Plumber from the stage. He phoned in his economic plan so while not let his supporters phone in their attendance. Great comment Jamba.
    
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