Denver Post

We need to engage in these Senate races, and every seat matters. Here's the latest from Colorado. -Patrick

Even as he trails in the polls, Colorado's Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer gets no breaks. A story in this week's Grand Junction Sentinel claiming Schaffer was engaged in wrongdoing by violating an unwritten State Department policy when he traveled in his role as an energy executive to discuss an oil development deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government.

But more facts have come forward in this case that demonstrate:

1. State Department officials gave Schaffer's employer the private go-ahead, and

2. Two Democrat operatives are posing as objective experts to keep the smear going against Schaffer.

Read the facts that seriously question the substance and the motives of this latest attack on Bob Schaffer over at the Schaffer v Udall blog.

Rather than letting the old media's carelessness be an excuse, the new media needs to pick it up a notch to help Schaffer's campaign engage with voters and overcome these bumps in the road that are getting far more play than they deserve.

The Republican is still the underdog but has a very real chance to win here in Colorado, especially insofar as an issue can continue to be made of the impact of Mark Udall's radical environmentalism on consumers at the pump, and the gross distortions about Udall's foreign policy record can be exposed.

From the states. -Patrick

Colorado is the site of one of the nation's most hotly contested U.S. Senate races. Republican Bob Schaffer, a strong conservative, faces a Democratic Congressman familiarly known to Coloradans as "Boulder liberal Mark Udall."

Two months ago a Denver Post reporter - apparently seeking some sort of investigative journalism award - penned a series of three front-page stories about Schaffer. The stories, based on sketchy sources, sought to implicate a trip Schaffer made as Congressman to the Marianas Islands with Jack Abramoff, forced labor, and sex slavery.