Two Democrats running for Garfield County commissioner are condemning the latest round of attacks against them in what has become an unusually bitter campaign fueled by outside political groups.
Stephen Bershenyi, of Glenwood Springs, and Steve Carter, of Rifle, are targeted in a recent mailing that is intended to appear as a newspaper. Called the Garfield County Post, the four-page mailer on newsprint includes articles accusing Bershenyi of wrongdoing in his opposition to a housing development outside Glenwood Springs, and another accusing Carter of seeking to make Garfield County a “sanctuary county” for illegal immigrants.
Both candidates have denied the latest allegations. Bershenyi said his campaign is considering filing complaints with the secretary of state’s office over some of the attacks.
“Special interests realized they were about to lose the chairmanship of the Garfield County commission,” said Bershenyi, who is running against incumbent Republican John Martin, the board’s chairman. “This is the very sort of thing special interests have done time and again in elections across the country. Their only approach is to try to tear someone apart and destroy their character and discredit them as a human being. It’s almost beneath comment.”
The two candidates have been the targets of a series of attacks by outside organizations. Conservative 527 groups and nonprofits have launched a series of ads and mailers attacking Democratic candidates and supporting Republicans. Many are doing so with little disclosure about their backers or their expenditures. Those launching last-minute attacks may have to disclose nothing until December.
At least one of the groups is funded largely by the energy industry. An umbrella group of environmental organizations has campaigned in favor of the Democrats.
“They’re reaching a new low,” said Carter, who is opposing Rifle Republican Mike Samson for the seat being vacated by Republican Larry McCown. “These folks are funded by the CEOs of the energy companies. They must be getting desperate if that’s the best they’re coming up with.”
Under the banner “the news you won’t get anywhere else,” the mailer packages its attacks among sports stories, weather reports and other items that make the publication appear to be legitimate newspaper. It even lists what appears to be an invented issue number.
“This is an attempt to look mainstream and slander a person,” said Liz Chandler, a New Castle Republican who has been critical of energy industry impacts and is supporting both Bershenyi and Carter. “To me, it just sets a new low bar for sleaze.”
The publication says it is paid for by the Western Slope Independent, a sporadic right-wing blog that lists no writers’ or editors’ names or affiliation on its Web site. The organization does not appear to be registered with the secretary of state or as a 527 political group with the IRS. It lists an address in “Delores,” a misspelling of the southwestern Colorado town Dolores.
The mailer borrows heavily from information put out by Western Tradition Partnership, a pro-resource extraction nonprofit launched by a pair of Montana Republican politicians. Bershenyi supporters said they suspect a link between them.
“I don’t support someone being negative and I’m not a part of it,” said Martin, who said he knew nothing of the mailer and had not seen it.
“We don’t go negative,” Martin said. “We don’t support that kind of stuff. We don’t contribute to it. We don’t welcome support from that kind of group.”
Martin said he has been the target of unusually negative attacks from Democrats.
“This is the worst negative race that I’ve been in and I’m not responding to it,” he said. “I seem to be the target of the Democratic Party in reference to being an antichrist.”
The latest mailing alleges “researchers are looking into potential ethics complaints” against Bershenyi, although the only researchers involved are writers for the blog. It implies Bershenyi helped shoot down the Red Feather Ridge development outside Glenwood Springs to boost the sales price of his family’s nearby ranch.
The article fails to note that the ranch belonged to Bershenyi’s cousin. It calls the group that opposed Red Feather Ridge a “Washington DC funded radical anti-growth group.”
“It’s pure bunkum,” said Bershenyi, who said all the funding for the group was local. He denied receiving any money from the ranch sale.
A separate article accused Carter of promising to “make Garfield County a sanctuary county for illegal aliens.”
Carter said the group misconstrued his stance against jailing illegal immigrants.
“Illegal immigration is illegal immigration and if they don’t have their papers they should not be here,” he said. “The way to choke it off, though, is not to put people in jail.”
Carter said immigration authorities routinely fail to pick up illegal immigrants, leaving them free after a short jail stint. He said he favors tougher laws against businesses that hire illegal immigrants.
The two Democrats have been targeted by several outside conservative political organizations, and most have disclosed few details about their contributors or expenditures.
A Sunday article in Montana’s Great Falls Tribune newspaper said two of those groups, Western Tradition Partnership and the Coalition for Energy and the Environment, are being sued for alleged electioneering violations in that state.
The Coalition for Energy and the Environment and another group, the Colorado League of Taxpayers, both have listed Denver GOP operative Scott Shires as its registered agent. He has been fined in the past for his Colorado attack ads.
Another group, Western Heritage, funded largely by the CEO of energy company Antero Resources, has launched ads in favor of the Republicans.
The group Small Town Values, a Denver-based group registered to John Zakhem, the attorney to the state Republican Party, has also campaigned on behalf of Samson and Martin.
The group WORC Colorado Rural Voters has campaigned on behalf of Carter and Bershenyi.
dfrey@aspendailynews.com
