Colorado State Senate candiate recieves death threat; blames targeted political ads

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A current El Paso County commissioner and State Senate candidate called police on Tuesday night after receiving around 30 texts from a Colorado Springs man, who allegedly threatened to kill him.

Stan VanderWerf says the incident didn't shake him, though he "took the threats seriously."

Just three days later, 30-year-old Casey Jones was arrested for making those threats and has now been charged with Menacing and Harassment.

VanderWerf says the rhetoric in this targeted political ad is a "spur" to this political violence. The ad can be watched below.

"There seems to be a correlation between some pretty negative attack ads against me. These are just really, really unfortunate," Vanderwerf said. "They're coming out of an IEC based in Denver and they're also simply not true. So it's it's hard for me to know for sure. But I'm concerned that those negative attack ads might have activated this person to create this threat."

The ads and website created attacking him allege that he does not support abortion, and accuse him of misusing taxpayer dollars, among other things.

The ads are paid for by All Together Colorado, a group that was formed to "inform Colorado voters about State Senate Candidates, primarily supporting Democrats and opposing Republicans," according to the group's PACER registration.

KRDO13 reached out to the registered agent for All Together Colorado and has not heard back.

VanderWerf's opponent denounces any kind of involvement with the ads and says he denounces political violence of any kind.

"I can tell you in my previous eight elections, I have never engaged in negative campaigning or trash-talking to an opponent. First of all, I don't think it's effective. I don't think the voters, our constituents appreciate that. And I think it oftentimes can hurt whoever is engaging in that practice," Rep. Marc Snyder said.