An attack ad aired by the union-backed campaign coalition Protect Colorado's Future received failing grades from two Denver television stations. CBS 4 found the ad "ignored" key substantive information while a 9 News analysis found it contained more opinion and conjecture than fact.
Protect Colorado's Future/YouTube
Calling the TV spot a "heavy-duty mudslinger," CBS 4 reporter Raj Chohan addresses the ad's central claim, that proponents of various free-market initiatives condoned the hiring of petition circulators with felony records. But campaigns on both ends of the ideological spectrum hire third-party signature gathering firms, which are responsible for hiring and overseeing their workers.
Chohan's research shows campaigns have a limited number of choices when outsourcing that type of work. "There is a small group of companies that do this kind of work," he said. "Most do not perform criminal background checks."
What Protect Colorado's Future doesn't mention in its ad: the same firms that hired the signature gatherers in question also worked for more liberal causes, too.
One of those targeted in the ad, Independence Institute president Jon Caldara, was quick to point out that irony to 9 News. "The same big labor groups hired the exact same firm two years ago to get petitions for their minimum wage amendment," he said. "The pot calls the kettle black."
9 News reporter Adam Schrager took exception with the use of quotes lifted from the Denver Daily News and Denver Post, seen at right. The ad gives the impression those papers characterized Amendment 47 and Initiatives 53 and 59 (incorrectly identified as "amendments") as "fraudulent" and "deceptive." But those words are actually lifted from quotes of representatives of Protect Colorado's Future itself, not journalists or editorial writers.
Viewed in context, Protect Colorado's Future threw the kitchen sink at its opponents, but came up short of its target, and the facts.