September 11, 2006. Five years later.
Events marking the fifth anniversary of 9/11 are taking place all across the country, including here in Colorado. A new 9/11 memorial in Broomfield will be busy today, while more than 100 miles to the south, a remembrance ceremony is being held at Ft. Carson.
Terrorism expert and former U.S. Senator Gary Hart will give a lecture today at 6:00 p.m. at Auraria Campus titled “9/11: Five Years On.”
Politics is always personal, but Republicans are planning on making it even more personal in 2006. AS The Washington Post reports:
Republicans are planning to spend the vast majority of their sizable financial war chest over the final 60 days of the campaign attacking Democratic House and Senate candidates over personal issues and local controversies, GOP officials said.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which this year dispatched a half-dozen operatives to comb through tax, court and other records looking for damaging information on Democratic candidates, plans to spend more than 90 percent of its $50 million-plus advertising budget on what officials described as negative ads.
The hope is that a vigorous effort to “define” opponents, in the parlance of GOP operatives, can help Republicans shift the midterm debate away from Iraq and limit losses this fall. The first round of attacks includes an ad that labeled a Democratic candidate in Wisconsin “Dr. Millionaire” and noted that he has sued 80 patients.
Whew! Good thing The Gravy isn’t running for political office. We’d hate to see the attack ads about the time we were in a cheap hotel room with cross-dressing prostitutes, sitting in a bathtub cheating on our taxes and plotting about how we could vote against illegal immigration reforms. That could have gotten ugly.
———–
Candidates for the 7th congressional district will speak today at the regional meeting of the Colorado Contractors Association beginning at 3:30 p.m. The meeting is being held at the Colorado Contractors Association Great Hall in Centennial.
———–
The flap over misleading political ads continues to, er, flap. Charles Ashby of the Pueblo Chieftain writes that Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government is calling on local prosecutors to investigate The Trailhead Group for making false statements in political ads being run against Democrats.
“Trailhead has flagrantly caused false statements to be broadcast in an attempt to mislead voters, and improperly influence the election,” said Chantell Taylor, director of the ethics group. “Law enforcement officials should immediately investigate Trailhead’s actions and put a stop to this type of dirty campaigning.”
———–
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez announced over the weekend that his campaign for governor had raised $216,520 for the month of August
