Legal Commentary

Negative Campaign Ads Move Into Overdrive

By Jeralyn

I was worried that when the Dems got around to making this a campaign issue, they would portray Ken Buck as "soft on crime" or too cozy with defense lawyers, neither of which is remotely true. Happily, the ad primarily focuses on the ethical implications of Buck's actions. I wrote up the whole story here. [More..]

Previously, Buck was an AUSA who left after a reprimand by the U.S. Attorney for criticizing a federal gun prosecution and sharing information with a defense lawyer. The information torpedoed the case (which, by the way, deserved to be torpedoed.) But, before people go around saying Buck is friendly to defense lawyers, think again: The defense attorney he shared the info with was a friend who was a former AUSA in the office from 1987 to 1994. The gun case was referred to the U.S. attorney's office in 1998, when Buck was chief of general crimes. A Republican state legislator asked Buck for recommendations for defense lawyers, and Buck suggested the former AUSA for representation.

In other words, Buck shared the info because the lawyer was a friend and former crony. Anyone who thinks he has defense-oriented leanings is way off base.

Ken Buck is a bad choice on abortion/choice, social security, immigration and crime.

The ad, by the way, was not put out by Michael Bennet or his campaign, but the Public Campaign Action Fund which says on its You Tube channel:

Public Campaign Action Fund is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving America's campaign finance laws. We help enact, defend, and promote Clean Elections-style public financing in states around the country like Arizona and Maine, and advocate for similar legislation for all federal elections.

The Denver Post says we can expect the ad to run often.

Campaign Money Watch doled out $750,000 to run the ad all over the Denver television market — this is one of the biggest buys for a single television ad in the general election campaign so far.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 07, 2010 (boomark / email).