“AIKEN” FOR CASH: Brandon Shaffer Misspells Missouri Congressman’s Name In Lame Fundraising Pitch

Published on August 22, 2012 by

Senate President and Congressional candidate Brandon Shaffer is aching for campaign cash. He was in such a rush to jump on the controversy of the day surrounding Missouri Congressman Todd Akin that his campaign misspelled Akin's name "Aiken" in a fundraising email this afternoon.

It's odd watching Shaffer trying to pile on a rape controversy, seeing that he compared his political plight to victims of rape and sexual assault earlier this year…and never apologized for the inappropriate and self-aggrandizing remarks publicly.   

Shaffer, of course, is now running in a district that a Democrat couldn't win even if the incumbent Republican was found with both a dead girl and a live boy. Since the powers-that-be behind the drawing of the Democrat redistricting maps screwed Shaffer, his fundraising has dried up faster than a Nebraska cornfield.

As of July 1, Shaffer had pulled in a meager $550,000 to Gardner's $1.8 million.

So it's no wonder Shaffer would say whatever it takes to make a few extra bucks. That apparently includes attacking his opponent on his birthday. The email asks recipients to give Shaffer $38 to mark Congressman Gardner's 38th birthday today. 

Stay classy, Brandon Shaffer. 

Oh, and if you end up raising any money from the email, maybe you can hire some staff that can spell. 


 

SERIOUS SAILOR SOLUTIONS: Brandon Shaffer Begs For A Dozen Donors In Latest Fundraising Plea

Published on June 29, 2012 by

UPDATE: A reader writes in to note the similarity to another case of a failed federal candidate in military garb looking ridiculous.

——–

Brandon Shaffer's campaign for Congress was over before it started, as the district is now the most Republican in the state, and it's had a chilling effect on his fundraising. 

An email today makes clear how far state Senate President Shaffer has fallen. The message, titled "A real problem solver," is penned by a former fellow Navy sailor of Shaffer's, and includes this hilarious picture:

Want nobody to take your campaign seriously? Mission Accomplished!


 

COFFMAN SPANKS MIKLOSI…AGAIN: Latest Fundraising Numbers Speak To Pathetic Weakness Of Challenger

Published on June 18, 2012 by

Congressman Coffman may not have had the best couple of weeks recently, but he can thank his lucky stars that he has been blessed with a pathetic challenger in state Rep. Joe Miklosi (D-Denver), and the most recent fundraising report provides the latest proof of that.

In the pre-primary period covering April 1 – June 6, Coffman nearly doubled Miklosi's fundraising, hauling in $325,00 to Miklosi's mere $175,000. To put that in perspective, Miklosi got his biggest chance to fundraise off of a Coffman mistake, most likely the biggest one Miklosi will get, and yet he raised less this period than he did in the first quarter of 2012.

Pathetic. 

Seeing that it took Miklosi two entire weeks to put together a poorly produced web video on Coffman's Obama comments, you could probably sense the poor fundraising report coming. Or maybe it's just a curse after Miklosi stiffed his first fundraising director of her full salary. 

Coffman's strong fundraising is also a sign that he is still far and away the favored candidate in the race. Since June 6, Coffman's utter fundraising dominance has only increased, with Miklosi reporting only $2,000 to Coffman's $50,000 in donations over $1,000.  

Even more damaging details come from digging into the financial reports for both candidates. Despite not knowing who is working for his own campaign, and bragging that the Washington, DC based DCCC is paying for much of his staff, Miklosi still managed to burn through $114,000 of the paltry $175,000 he raised, an unsustainable burn rate this far out from the election.

Miklosi now has less than $400,000 cash on hand, compared to Coffman's nearly $1.6 million. With the Denver media market likely to get much more expensive come the fall, with every outside group and political party committee expected to drop six figure sums into advertising, this is going to be a problem for Miklosi.

While candidates, by law, have access to cheaper ad rates, you can't buy much TV time with the pittance Miklosi has in his campaign account. 

At this point, we're betting the NRCC is starting to look at taking a larger chunk of the $1.6 million they reserved in the Denver media market and putting it toward knocking out Ed Perlmutter with Joe Coors. 

(Correction: We originally misidentified Coffman as the one not paying his staff member. It was Miklosi who is the deadbeat boss. We regret the error. Hopefully Miklosi regrets his own.)

 

MAY MAULING: Romney/RNC Outraised Obama/DNC Last Month By $16 Million, 93% Of Donors Under $250

Published on June 7, 2012 by

Despite President Obama being too busy attending fundraisers to campaign for losing Wisconsin recall candidate Tom Barrett, the Campaigner-in-Chief still got handily whooped by Mitt Romney in the campaign donation department last month. The combined fundraising operation of the RNC and Romney's campaign raised $76.8 million in May, to Obama and the DNC's $60 million.

Before liberals begin their knee-jerk whining about rich donors lining the Romney campaign's pockets, they should consider one fact: 93% of donors gave $250 or less. As The Fix's Chris Cilizza tweeted about that little detail: Wowza. 

Impressive to conservatives should be the fact that Romney has $107 million cash on hand. The Obama campaign, notably, did not release their cash on hand figure. That's probably because they're spending cash like Obama does taxpayer funds, as in a drunken frat boy with his parents’ credit card. 

What makes this Romney fundraising romp even more damaging to the campaign narrative is that Obama has broken all sorts of fundraising records for Presidents — specifically he's attended more high dollar re-election fundraisers than every President since Nixon, combined. 

All the George Clooneys and Sarah Jessica Parkers of the world can't make up for the fact that Obama isn't working. His pathetic fundraising haul is proof that even Democrats get that. 


 

LEARNING HIS LESSON: Brandon Shaffer Finally Includes Legal Disclaimer In Fundraising Emails

Published on May 29, 2012 by

A few months ago we caught state Senate President and Congressional candidate Brandon Shaffer violating a Department of Defense directive about using photos of military personnel in uniform by not including a disclaimer that the photo did not imply an endorsement by any branch of the military.

In a Memorial Day fundraising email sent yesterday, including a picture of Shaffer in a Navy sailors' uniform, it appears Shaffer has decided to finally comply with the directive. 

At the bottom of his email screed, the following disclaimer appeared:

Brandon Shaffer is a former member of the Navy. Use of his military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.

Only took Shaffer six months to do it right.


 

WORST WEEK IN DENVER: Joe Miklosi’s Campaign Had Its Toughest Seven Day Stretch Yet

Published on May 11, 2012 by

State Rep Joe Miklosi's campaign for Congress in CD6 has never really had a good week, but this week is the worst yet. He was listed as a "Loser" by The Denver Post, a report revealed he stiffed a staff member of pay and The Washington Post can't even spell his name right.

From The Denver Post's legislative session Scorecard (not available online):

LOSERS
Rep. Joe Miklosi: The Aurora Democrat, who is running in the 6th Congressional District, was slammed after pushing a bill designed to prevent discrimination against people in biker clothing. Critics said the bill, which failed, was a shameless pander to certain voters, including veterans. He also sponsored a bill to enact a sales-tax holiday for back-to-school items, a measure critics called a political gimmick; it failed.

That's got to sting. Good luck running on that record against Mike Coffman.

One small correction, though. Miklosi is a Denver Democrat, not an Aurora Democrat. He has never been elected to anything from Aurora — he just moved there in February to run for Congress. 

The second, and perhaps more damaging to his campaign, event that occurred this week was The Colorado Observer's uncovering of a back pay complaint against Miklosi by his former campaign finance director. In stiffing his former staffer of pay, Miklosi is setting himself up to be seen as a deadbeat boss. In this economy, or any economy really, that's not an image people see positively. 

To add insult to injury, in the one good piece of news Miklosi got all week — The Washington Post listing his race as one to watch — they couldn't even spell his name right. The reason Miklosi's race in CD6 even got mentioned was on paper it should be a close race, but since Miklosi has proved to be such a terrible candidate and Mike Coffman has been a "fundraising machine" it's not considered close to local observers. Making clear the author only took a brief look at the district's voter registration, and not the quality of the candidates themselves, Miklosi's name is misspelled Mikloski. 

Congratulations, Joe Miklosi. You had the worst week in Denver. 


 

DELUSIONAL: Brandon Shaffer Says His Hopeless Campaign To Be Decided By “A Few Hundred Votes”

Published on May 1, 2012 by

Senate President and CD4 Congressional candidate Brandon Shaffer is delusional. At a recent event for that rare species known as Fort Morgan Democrats, Shaffer speculated that his hopeless campaign to unseat incumbent GOP Congressman Cory Gardner would come down to "a few hundred votes."

Funny, that's just what his fundraising says about the race. The first quarter Shaffer was in the race he raised $179k. That dropped to $112k in the next quarter and has stayed abysmally low this latest quarter with $114k raised. Donations always drop for competitive races. 

Reports The Fort Morgan Times:

Democratic candidate Brandon Shaffer, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Colorado' s 4th Congressional District is making a point of shaking the hands of everyone he meets, because the election may come down to a few hundred vote difference, he said at the Morgan County Democratic Party's Big Ten Dinner Saturday night.

After redistricting made CD4 one of the safest seats in Colorado for Republicans, the race went from a long shot for Shaffer to a race that Shaffer couldn't win even if Gardner was caught with the proverbial dead girl or live boy.

But don't blame Shaffer for his political plight, because as Shaffer told The Denver Post, that would be like blaming a woman for being raped. 


 

STINGY JOHN KEFALAS: Fundraising Email Talks Of His Decision To Withhold Fruit From Homeless Man

Published on April 28, 2012 by

State Representative John Kefalas (D-Ft Collins) only likes to give some of his fruit to homeless men rummaging through his apartment's trash. Why? He doesn't know, but he just had to tell the recipients of his fundraising email about it.

This is one of the odder pitches for campaign cash we have ever seen. You would almost think it was a prank.

From an email sent this afternoon:

In closing, I would like to share a story with you. On Wednesday morning I went to the dumpster behind my Denver apartment to drop off my monthly trash. There was a man rummaging through the garbage. He was startled to see me and he apologized profusely, to which I replied that he need not worry. He was articulate, present and he gave me eye contact; his eyes were filled with sadness. I offered him some fruit from a bag I carried, but I did not offer the entire bag of fruit. Why? I do not have all the answers.  

Thank you for traveling this journey alongside me and for all the wonderful relationships. Be well and have a great Colorado day.  

Sincerely,  

John Kefalas,  

State Representative House District 52

Representative Kefalas has a long history of only sharing part of his earnings. Despite his party's message about "paying your fair share" in taxes, Kefalas was a tax cheat through the 1980s and early 90s. He didn't pay his federal income taxes through that period, and continued to not pay the federal telephone excise tax into last decade. 

What is not clear from the incoherent email is whether Rep. Kefalas was giving the homeless man fruit from his trash bag or from a bag of fruit he carried with him while taking his trash out. Why is this not clear? Because Kefalas doesn't give all the answers. 


 

COPY AND PASTE FUNDRAISING: Democrat Legislative Candidates Blasting Out Identical Donation Emails

Published on April 20, 2012 by

Democrat legislative candidates are apparently farming out their "personal" fundraising appeals to the same person, as copies of emails obtained by Colorado Peak Politics appear nearly identical. A source who received these emails says they've received a nearly half-dozen of the form emails from different candidates in the last couple of days. 

Form emails are standard when being sent out by one organization to a large list, but they are ostensibly suppposed to be personal appeals for donations when sent by individual candidates.

The fact that the Peak obtained these emails also has to make you wonder where Democrats are harvesting their fundraising lists. Somebody is probably feeling pretty stupid right now.

Here's a few examples. You can tell they really cared about developing a unique message to their potential donors.

"Lawyer-Lobbyist" Tracy Kraft-Tharp, running for HD29, and Dominick Moreno, running for HD32, sent out emails a day apart from each other, but that, and a few word changes, is about the only thing that distinguishes them.

Email from Dominick Moreno:



From: Dominick Moreno
Date: April 18, 2012 9:16:23 AM MDT
Subject: Fundraising Deadline Fast Approaching!!!
Dear Neighbor,

With the end of the financial reporting period fast approaching, it's important for our campaign to prove we have strong grassroots support from folks like yourself.

We are only $500 away from this quarter's goal – will you help us reach it?

Your contribution will help our campaign send a message that we need a strong community voice in the State House.  

All contributions, no matter the amount, will ensure that we have a State Representative who shares our values and will put working families in Adams County first.  

Please help us reach our goal by making a contribution today.  

Thank you for your continued support.

And here is virtually the exact same email sent by Lawyer-Lobbyist Tracy Kraft Tharp:

From: Friends of Tracy Kraft Tharp
Date: Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 2:23 PM
Subject: Friends of Tracy Kraft Tharp  

This is an important race for our families and children. Our focus is to help create jobs, support our families, and ensure that our children receive the education they need so they too can achieve the American Dream.  

With the end of the financial reporting period coming up, I need your help again! It is important that this campaign demonstrate that it has the grassroots support from people like you.

We are only $1,050 away from our goal for this quarter. Can you help by making a contribution?  

Your contribution will help our campaign reach our local voters and will send a message that we need a strong community voice in the House!

All contributions, no matter how small, will ensure that we have a State Representative that shares our values and will put families and children first.  

Please help us reach our goal by making a contribution today!  

THANK YOU for your continued support.

See what Kraft-Tharp did there? She capitalized THANK YOU to make it original.

Maybe if she wins when an old lobbying client hands her a bill to run she'll capitalize a few words before introducing the legislation.

Political party candidates coordinate all the time, but when they end up sending out nearly identical emails and repeat the lame talking point that Democrats are "laser-focused" on jobs, they just end up looking like they can’t think for themselves.

 

REPRESENTING THE 99%: Ed Perlmutter Dropped Nearly $24,000 On Vail Trips This Last Quarter

Published on April 17, 2012 by

Ed Perlmutter likes to paint himself as the man of the people, while his campaign and allies hypocritically rip on Joe Coors Jr for belonging to the same country club that Perlmutter did (at least until his wife won the membership in their divorce). Now the Perlmutter "man of the people" image is coming under scrutiny.

The most recent Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing for Perlmutter's fundraising in the first quarter of 2012 shows nearly $24,000 spent on multiple swanky trips to Vail, including over $9,000 spent just at the Four Seasons.

Those are just the kind of trips that the hard working citizens of Jefferson County take all the time. Who in JeffCo isn't a preferred guest at the Four Seasons in Vail?

Digging into Coors's and Perlmutter's fundraising reports is illuminating.

Liberals are crying about Coors donating to himself, though you won't hear a peep about that when Jared Polis does it. Which is shocking considering Coors donated about $200k to his campaign, whereas Polis wrote himself checks totaling over $7 million.

Yet when you actually look at where the donations come from it begins to develop a narrative Democrats in Colorado aren't going to like.

From individuals, Coors raised $230,730. Perlmutter raised only $161,788. So where did Perlmutter get all of his money?


Special interest PACs.

Perlmutter got $202,000 from PACs. Coors got $1,000.

In fact, this cycle Perlmutter has raised more money from PACs ($714,793) than he has individuals ($531,618)!

Normally incumbents draw more from PACs than challengers, but in Colorado all Democrat Congressional candidates rely on special interest money.

Take Sal Pace. In his first fundraising quarter, PACs represented 23% of his total. For Brandon Shaffer, it was 22%. Joe Miklosi took the prize with 36% of his funds coming from PACs. 

When those three Democrats' opponents were challengers themselves what they raised from PACs represented less than 0.5% (Tipton), 3% (Gardner) and 0.8% (Coffman).

The question worth asking is why do Perlmutter and Democrats rely so heavily on special interest money?

 
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