Gardner ‘personhood’ woes sure to continue

 
This is Colorado politics in the internet era.

This week, Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall blasted campaign opponent Congressman Cory Gardner with a Web ad underlining Gardner’s support for the anti-abortion “personhood” movement.

Gardner then posted his own quick response ad in which he says he is “listening” on personhood and that Udall is just trying to distract from Obamacare.

Then today came a new web ad, this one from Planned Parenthood’s political arm, Planned Parenthood Votes, which is running a midterm election campaign it calls “Women are Watching.” The group’s ad is a response to the Gardner response and it argues that the congressman, who has ever only represented rural conservative constituencies, has a current record in Washington that demonstrates he is as pro-personhood now as he has ever been and is now simply trying to whitewash the facts to win his first statewide race.

Gardner is unlikely to come out ahead in the web war. His performance in his ad is stilted and expository. He says he “changed his mind on personhood” but he hasn’t. He backed a slew of anti-abortion bills over the last decade as an officeholder and he supported personhood ballot initiatives in the state two election seasons in a row. More to the point, he still says he is adamantly anti-abortion and he is a current co-sponsor of the main personhood bill on the docket on the Hill, the “Life at Conception Act.” Gardner’s ad has the “I didn’t do it” feel of a man who has been caught and put against a wall and asked a question point blank.

The series of ads on Gardner and personhood — or women’s health more generally — poses a question: What’s to stop Udall from doing this to Gardner repeatedly on a host of issues? What’s next, immigration-policy reform? Gay rights? The prospect raises another question: What’s to stop all Democratic candidates in the state running in swing districts or for statewide offices from “Gardnering” their opponents this way on the same set of issues, where majorities of voters solidly embrace Democratic positions?

4 COMMENTS

  1. The thing about republicans is that all one would have to do to defeat most of them is to just point out what they actually vote for and against. They’re not for humanity, they’re not for children, they’re not for old people, they’re not for the middle class, they’re not for decent wages, they’re not for health care we can afford, but they ARE for the rich and their increasing fortunes. Point out that they ALL vote against YOU and for the 1% exclusively, and most people with even half a brain know not to vote for that.

    And the best part is that you don’t even have to stoop to their level, all you have to do is be honest.

    All Udall or anyone else has to do is point out what Gardener has stood for and voted for since he got into state office, and most sensible people will KNOW that putting him in national office would be a HUGE mistake. Putting him in state office was a mistake, now let’s see about FIXING that mistake, and vote him out of politics entirely.

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