Face The State Staff Report
The fight for the Republican nomination in the 6th congressional district has candidates busy proving their GOP grassroots purity. First came a battle of words over ballot access, with Ted Harvey earning top-line in a party assembly where only he and Steve Ward participated. Secretary of State Mike Coffman and businessman Wil Armstrong chose to petition on to the primary ballot, conserving resources for later in their campaigns.
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This week, a new salvo opened between Ward and Armstrong over an endorsement letter sent by the latter's father, former Sen. Bill Armstrong. In it, the senior Armstrong tells of his son winning the "Battle of the T-Shirts" and the "sign war." Campaigns often play up the number of yard signs placed in demonstrating on-the-ground support from voters.
Those assertions prompted a firm response from Ward's campaign in a press release, Thursday. Addressing "Bill/Wil" directly, Ward says, "at a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans are at war, fighting in places you’ve never volunteered to go, it’s offensive to boast about winning a fight in terms of parade costumes."
The press release concludes, "My T-shirt is olive drab."
"Is he serious?" asked Jack Stansbery, Armstrong's campaign manager. "He's offended at Bill's use of the word 'battle,' I guess."
Christine Burtt, Ward's campaign manager, says the press release speaks for itself, but added when it comes to the yard sign war, it's her candidate who comes out ahead. "We have more than 1100 permission-based signs out," she said. "Other campaigns have a lot of signs out, but on public rights-of-way."
Both Ward and Coffman are heavily stressing their military records as assets. According to the campaign, should Ward win the nomination and be elected in November, he would be the only congressman with both Iraq and Afghanistan combat experience.
Controversy over the importance of military experience as a qualification for election played out publicly this week when the Rocky Mountain News printed e-mailed remarks from Stansbery questioning Coffman's oft-touted military record. "Coffman says it's critical to have a veteran in Congress, but currently Congress has 101 military veterans and 56 of them are Republican," he wrote.
Despite this latest flap, both Burtt and Stansbery insist their campaigns are progressing well. "The key word to this campaign is, we're having fun," Burtt said. She says she and Ward resolved early to keep their campaign light-hearted. "We're both too old to not have fun."
Today in the CD 6 race: The CD-6 candidates meet this afternoon at the KBDI Channel 12 studios in Denver to tape a televised debate, which airs next week.