Politics

A kinder, gentler Ken Buck?

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
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Ken Buck, the presumed front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination in Colorado, is fighting back against the “war on women” narrative that helped doom his Senate campaign in 2010. And the opening salvo in the battle to reclaim his name is coming in the form of a two-minute video entitled, Stephanie’s Story.

The story goes like this: In 2008, Stephanie Drobny and her two young children fled their home in Montana after her abusive husband threatened to murder her and put her in the forest “where the bears would eat” her. But Ken Buck, in his capacity as the Weld County District Attorney, helped her “get through a rough time in my life,” Drobny, who is now a nurse in Greeley, Colorado, says during the video.

Aside from displaying a kinder, gentler Ken Buck, the video speaks to his interest in making policy. In the process of helping Drobny, Buck discovered a major loophole in the law that allowed perpetrators like her husband to continue contacting the children. Buck, Drobny, and even her daughter went to the state legislature so that they could help close the loophole. The bill was signed into law in 2011.

Of course, there’s a good reason why the campaign is anxious to push out these videos now. This time around, Buck tells me he is taking proactive measures to undermine the “war on women” meme that hurt him last time. In other words, when it comes to calling Ken Buck anti-woman, that buck stops here.

“I ran in 2010 and the liberals — the progressives — did a masterful job of lying to the public about who I am,” Buck said during a recent interview. “I’ve been a prosecutor for 25 years I’ve helped people — rape victims, domestic violence victims, victims of senior fraud, in every way. I have spent my free time volunteering to help at-risk kids so they don’t choose a life of crime.”

Regarding the way he was portrayed in the 2010 General Election campaign, Buck said: “The Democrats portrayed this person, and when I looked at the commercials, I didn’t even want to vote for that guy.”

“It was this guy who didn’t like people, didn’t care about people, didn’t have a heart for people,” he continued. “And I decided if I was going to run again, I was going to make sure that I portrayed myself that was honest and allowed people to make a judgment — hopefully on the issues — and not on some personality that the Democrats create.”

Buck promises this video is merely be the first in a series of maybe ten, or so, he will release. And although they’re too long to air on TV in their current format, “at some point in time,” he avers, “parts of these interviews will be pulled out and ads will be created to set the record straight.”

For a candidate hoping to neutralize a predictable attack, having these testimonials filmed and in the can should go a long way. “I anticipate that once again the Democrats will create the ‘war on women’ narrative,” he said, “and these women talk about who I [really] am.”

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Matt K. Lewis