Udall is as mainstream as this picture isn’t photoshopped

The Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels is touring with Sen. Mark Udall in Steamboat today, and has already tweeted this little nugget:

Campaigning in Steamboat, @MarkUdall calls himself “mainstream,” says @CoryGardnerCO is “extreme.” #copolitics

— Lynn Bartels (@lynn_bartels) August 12, 2014

But, as Udall has said many times, never judge anyone by their words, rather, judge them by their actions.  PeakNation™, let’s see how well Udall’s actions support his claim of being “mainstream.”

Defining mainstream in Colorado is pretty easy; with a third Dems, a third GOP, and a third independents, we’re about as middle of the road as you can get with an emphasis on a live and let live, fierce independence.  But, independent thinking is the complete opposite of what Udall has displayed since entering the Senate.  Dating back to 2009, Udall’s support for President Obama’s agenda has been little better than a rubber stamp.  According to CQ Udall has voted with Obama 97% (2009), 95% (2010), 95% (2011), 97% (2012), and 99% (2013).  Those scores are higher than even the average support Udall’s fellow Democrats give Obama, meaning Udall is to the Left of his Leftist party.

If we eliminate unanimous senate votes that might inflate such scores, Udall looks even worse.  When the vote records are adjusted to only account for votes where Obama stated a position, but support for the bill fell below 80%, Udall’s support for Obama is even more apparent: 98% (2009), 95% (2010), 91.1% (2011), 97.9% (2012), 98.5% (2013).  Which should be most worrying to Coloradans is the fact that even as Obama’s support has plummeted among us, Udall hasn’t followed and is supporting him more and more.

But, it’s not only for Obama that Udall sells-out mainstream Coloradans.  On the Keystone XL pipeline, a clear majority of Coloradans support it, by almost 2 to 1.  Yet, Udall rather listen to one eco-extremist Californian on this issue than an overwhelming number of Coloradans.  At this point, are we even sure Udall knows the definition of mainstream?  We mean, of all the threatened Senate Democratic incumbents, he is the only one who doesn’t support the Keystone XL pipeline.  How can you claim to be mainstream, when all the people in the same boat as you are closer to the middle?

Even the folks over at FiveThirtyEight have singled out Udall as the most liberal Senator fighting for his job:

Democrat Mark Udall is rated as the most liberal of the candidates running in a competitive Senate race this year.

PeakPolygraph verdict:  Sen. Mark Udall’s statement that he is “mainstream” doesn’t even pass his own test of judging based off of actions, not words.  In fact, by almost every quantifiable measure, Udall has spent the past six years getting more liberal, putting him far out of the mainstream of Colorado.  This is even easier to see when you look at the actions of his own campaign:  Instead of running a positive campaign of touting what he has accomplished for Colorado over the past six years, Mark Udall is running one of the most politically cynical attack campaigns in Colorado history where he looks to win reelection by distortion and lies.  If Udall believes that’s mainstream, it just goes to show how long ago he left it.