With ballots already coming in at record speed, Senator Cory Gardner’s wealthy corporate backers are panicking about losing their top ally in the U.S. Senate and pumping another million dollars into false ads. Hickenlooper for Colorado press secretary Ammar Moussa released the following statement regarding the latest attack from Gardner’s shady billionaire backers:
“With 19 days left to vote in Colorado, Cory Gardner’s billionaire friends are throwing everything and the kitchen sink to attack John Hickenlooper and lie about Gardner’s toxic record. After collecting from Cory Gardner’s trillion dollar tax giveaway, billionaire Joe Ricketts and his super PAC are rewarding Senator Gardner with a million dollars worth of false attack ads and desperate greenwashing. These attacks will do nothing to erase Cory Gardner’s record of rubber stamping Trump’s agenda, from a trillion dollar gift to the wealthiest people and largest corporations to ramming through a Supreme Court nominee while refusing to get desperately-needed COVID relief done.”
See below for the facts about this false ad.
FACT: ESAFund is a super PAC run by Joe Ricketts, a racist billionaire who has organized mega donors to support Republicans who passed the Trump tax cuts.
- Ricketts’ family runs a super PAC that is “one of the largest dark money organizations in the nation”
- Ricketts’ group spent $15 million to push through the Trump tax cuts that Cory Gardner rubber stamped. Since Trump was elected, the Ricketts family saw their fortune jump nearly a billion dollars.
- Last year, Ricketts’ emails “revealed racist and anti-Muslim sentiments.”
FACT: Nine of the ten public trustees referenced in the ad were appointed by Hickenlooper’s predecessors, going as far back as 1977.
- The one trustee Hickenlooper appointed was not found to have engaged in any impropriety.
FACT: After requesting the resignations of all the trustees, Hickenlooper and his administration implemented immediate reforms to the trustee process that had never existed before.
- Among the several reforms, trustees now have to annually disclose conflict of interests and the governor’s office has increased oversight over spending.
FACT: Colorado Supreme Court Justices are chosen from a list proposed by an independent, bipartisan commission.
- “In their report, the state’s commission for State Supreme Court justices lauded Hart for her ‘exceptional intellect,’ ‘engagement with the community,’ and ‘thoughtful and respectful approach’ to those who appear before her.” — Denverite
- Melissa Hart met “performance standards by a commission vote of 11-0.” — Denverite
FACT: As Governor, Hickenlooper repeatedly took on the oil and gas industry and has a clear record of tackling climate change and protecting our clean air and water.
- As Governor, Hickenlooper brought industry groups and environmentalists together to make Colorado the first state to limit methane pollution from oil and gas wells. Colorado’s “gold standard” rules were estimated to cut the equivalent of 340,000 cars’ worth of emissions and cut methane leaks by over half.- Denver Post
- In the wake of President Trump pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, Hickenlooper took action to commit Colorado to upholding those standards, issuing an executive order to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26%, maximize renewable energy use, and increase electric vehicle use.
- Similarly, when Trump announced his repeal of the Clean Power Plan, Hickenlooper recommitted Colorado to its goals of reducing emissions.
- As Governor, Hickenlooper oversaw the retirement of two coal plants that were replaced with wind and solar.
