Ad
#9: TV Ad: "Coors Missile Defense"
by Pete Coors for U.S. Senate
By Gwen Florio, Rocky Mountain News
October 2, 2004
The U.S. Senate duel between Democrat Ken Salazar and Republican Pete Coors got nastier this week with a pair of ads that caused each campaign to drop such politely coded terminology as "falsehood" and "exaggeration.""Pete Coors is telling another lie about Ken Salazar," said Salazar campaign spokesman Cody Wertz about an ad, which went on the air Friday, painting Salazar as weak on national defense."They're playing loose with the truth," said Coors campaign spokeswoman Cinamon Watson, about an ad released this week, taking Coors to task for his company's record on jobs and the environment.
The Coors campaign released the anti-Salazar ad statewide a day after the presidential debate.It links Salazar to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and says Salazar is endorsed by a group "praising his opposition to a missile defense system (and) advocating deep cuts in our military."Not true - actually, a "bold-faced lie" - Wertz said. Salazar "supports continued research on missile defense and supports President Bush's defense budget," he said.
The anti-Coors ad, financed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, notes that the Coors Brewing Co. has been fined for air pollution and for a fish kill.The ad also smacks Pete Coors for cutting hundreds of jobs at his company and outsourcing others. "Good for Pete, bad for Colorado," it concludes.Watson said that the ad is "not telling the whole story. They have the wrong numbers."The Coors Brewing Co. has said that job losses are lower than they appear because of the way the company reorganized.The DSCC's Brad Woodhouse said the ad takes aim at Pete Coors' company because of the way Coors has sneered at Salazar - Colorado's two-term attorney general - for being a lawyer.
Coors "certainly has opened himself up for a discussion of his profession and background," Woodhouse said.
