Money Tracker: Democrat-funded PACs buying TV ads in Colorado GOP primary race
DENVER, Colo. (KRDO)-- Democrat political action committees are inserting themselves in Colorado Republican primary races. But the wording in the ads may be designed to actually make candidates look more appealing to Republicans.
Super PAC "Democratic Colorado" has dropped more than $1.3 million on television ads, purportedly against GOP U.S. senate candidate Ron Hanks.
The ad calls Hanks an election denier, and says Hanks was "rated one of the most conservative members in the State House."
"This ad is clearly an effort to help Ron Hanks win the primary even though it purports to be attacking him," former Republican lawmaker and unaffiliated voter Rob Witwer told 9News in Denver. "And the reason is is that because he's the one they would rather run against in November."
Despite paying for ads in the Republican primary election, a representative for Democratic Colorado told KRDO the committee is focused on the general election in November.
"We are an organization committed to ensuring that Colorado does not elect a Republican to the U.S. Senate and giving voters the facts about who’s running to represent them. Ron Hanks is simply too conservative for Colorado and voters deserve to know the truth about him: at every opportunity, Hanks has consistently put conservative values ahead of our interests—from denying the results of the 2020 election to fighting to ban all abortions and increase access to guns.” – Alvina Vasquez, spokesperson for Democratic Colorado
Vasquez sent KRDO a link to polls of registered voters in Colorado from Democrat polling firm GlobalStrategyGroups and liberal action group ProgressNow. The polls show that, at the moment, it would be about the same for Democrat Michael Bennet to beat Hanks in November as fellow Republican Senate candidate Joe O'Dea.
"Hanks is the leading Republican candidate and we are starting the general election campaign now, educating voters on how out-of-step Ron Hanks is with Colorado values," Alvina Vasquez said.
The same attack ad strategy is being used for Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez.
Another Democrat-funded committee, the Colorado Information Network has paid $600,000 for TV ads, at least $400,000 of which have centered around Lopez's pro-life abortion views.
That same poll showed Polls that Democrat Governor Jared Polis would fare better against Lopez than Republican Heidi Ganhal by about three percentage points.
