A Super PAC associated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York spent more than $4 million unsuccessfully promoting a right-wing candidate in Colorado’s June Senate primary.
Senate Majority PAC (SMP) was the only funder of Democratic Colorado, a single-candidate Super PAC established four weeks before the primary. SMP funneled nearly $4.1 million into Democratic Colorado between June 3-24, Democratic Colorado’s July Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing shows, and the group officially dissolved July 15.
In a shocking development that absolutely no one could have seen coming, Democratic Colorado, the group that spent over $4M in the #COSen GOP primary trying unsuccessfully to keep Joe O’Dea out of the general election, was entirely funded by Chuck Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC https://t.co/HJUVLT54MT pic.twitter.com/UGoNfW5M4x
— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) July 21, 2022
Democratic Colorado ran ads asserting that state Sen. Ron Hanks “was rated one of the most conservative members in the state House” and “wants to ban all abortions.” Hanks, a first-term state senator, also attended former President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 Ellipse speech, and marched to the Capitol during the accompanying riot.
Hanks lost to businessman Joe O’Dea, a self-styled “Republican Joe Manchin,” by nine points. (RELATED: Democrats Boost Republican Candidates In Key Primaries)
Although Democratic Colorado ran ads in the primary claiming that O’Dea supported “Biden’s $1.2 trillion spending bill” and citing previous donations to Democrats, SMP immediately claimed that O’Dea would be too right-wing for the state.
“Joe O’Dea spent his primary campaign racing far to the right of Colorado voters and dodging tough questions, but he can’t escape his long record of hurting workers and saying one thing while doing another. One thing is crystal clear: he would be nothing but a rubber stamp for Senate Republicans’ dangerous agenda to further restrict abortion rights and gut Medicare and Social Security. O’Dea is not who he says he is and he can’t be trusted to stand up for Colorado values,” Senate Majority PAC President JB Poersch said in a statement.
Senate Majority PAC did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment on its involvement in the creation of Democratic Colorado.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) announced June 20 that it would file an FEC complaint against Democratic Colorado alleging violations of disclosure rules. Democratic Colorado failed to appropriately mark mailers with “a legally required disclaimer,” and did not appropriately divulge its donors and vendors, NRSC chairman Rick Scott alleged.