Denver Post - Adwatch
Title: "Experience"
Ad sponsor: Salazar for Senate
Producer: Mandy Grunwald
Type: Biographical
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ken Salazar is running an ad statewide touting the work he has done as Colorado attorney general and promising similar accomplishments if he is elected to the Senate.
Claim: "He's won thousands of appeals to keep criminals like murderers and rapists in prison."
Truth: Salazar's annual report shows that his office handled nearly 3,600 appeals between 2000 and 2003 and has had more than an 88 percent success rate over the past five years. The Coors campaign countered that Salazar lost an appeals case that released more than 70 sex offenders in 2001. The problem started in the legislature, which passed conflicting laws in 1993 and 1996 governing how much parole sex offenders must serve. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that many sex offenders fell under the 1996 law that limited the length of parole.
Claim: "Helped prepare our state's response to terrorist attacks."
Truth: Salazar said that he called for the $1 million for police training that passed the legislature last year. The bill does not specify that the training would be to fight terrorism, but Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz said the money could be used for terrorism training. Salazar also cites the sentencing of a local terrorist leader and being a member of the Governor's Expert Emergency Epidemic Response Committee, which recommends how to fight bioterrorism and other disease emergencies. Salazar attended no meetings of the committee, but he sent a surrogate to every one, Wertz said.
- Arthur Kane, staff writer
