Video: Paid Recall Worker Tells Voter To Lie About Residence

UPDATE: Check out this complaint posted to the Hudak recall campaign's Facebook page:

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FOX 31's Eli Stokols again breaks a big story that's bad for the recall campaign against Sen. Evie Hudak:

A man being paid to gather signatures to recall state Sen. Evie Hudak can be heard encouraging a person who lives outside the lawmaker’s district to sign his petition with a fake address in an audio recording released Thursday by a group defending Hudak.

The Democracy Defense Fund, formed to defend Hudak, D-Westminster, sent out a YouTube video of an audio recording of a four-minute exchange between an unidentified petition circulator, who admits to being paid $3 per signature by Kennedy Enterprises, and an unidentified person who is really a DDF staffer with a tape recorder…

“If you write an Arvada address in there, it’s alright,” the petition gatherer says, apparently encouraging the man to lie about his residency. [Pols emphasis]

“So if I just wrote my buddy’s house, you think it would work out?” the man responds.

“The thing is, technically, only out of 100 names — or let’s say out of 1,000 names, only 630 of them have to be real registered voters for me to get paid for the whole job,” the petition circulator says.

“It’s basically six out of ten — makes it a little easier for me.”

One of the things that has made Democrats nervous as the recall signature campaign against Sen. Evie Hudak got underway were reports that organizers had adopted a validation screening procedure similar to the method against against Sen. Angela Giron in Pueblo. By pre-screening prospective petition signers against a mobile-accessible voter file spreadsheet to ensure they are registered voters living in the district, the recall campaign against Giron achieved a stunningly high validity rate for their petitions. As we've said, regardless of how you feel about the recalls, you have to acknowledge that this prescreening of signers was a game-changing development–and should be adopted by every petition campaign going forward.

So what's going on here? Why is this paid gatherer telling people who live out of the district to lie about their residence? Why does he so casually explain that he only needs a 63% validity rate to "get paid for the whole job?"

There have been a number of anecdotal reports, from talk radio interviews in addition to tallies from recall opponents watching petition sites, that suggest the Hudak recall campaign is having trouble obtaining the signatures needed to reach the ballot. We of course have no way of assessing the truth of these reports, but it's true that the threshold for success in Senate District 19 is substantially higher than it was for the two recall elections this summer. We do know that at least at one point of the Hudak recall petition campaign, on-site validation of voters as residents of the district was taking place.

But what we're seeing here, a paid gatherer willing to lie and encourage lying, with a validity quota of only 63% to get paid, obviously without the screening intended to ensure the kind of high validity rates we saw in the Giron recall, is the best evidence yet that the Hudak recall campaign is desperate. The impression the campaign has given is that they are using on-site validation, and as a result there's already a broad presumption of a high validity rate for whatever signatures they do turn in. This campaign has tried even harder than previous efforts to pass itself off as "grassroots" and adherent to high standards. Eli Stokols' last report, documenting a pro-recall worker assaulting a recall opponent cameraman, already put a dent in that impression.

Today, we know a lot more. Now we know that they've got guys out on street corners ready to say anything to anybody to get them to sign the petition, even lie and facilitate fraud. And that means the aforementioned presumption of high validity, and with it the moral high ground the Hudak recall campaign claims, may now be dispensed with.

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Creepy Koch Ad Tells Young People To Go Uninsured

Chris Moody at Yahoo! News reports on what may be the most over-the-top anti-"Obamacare" ad ever made–and though we haven't seen them all, we're pretty sure that's saying a lot:

Generation Opportunity, a Virginia-based group that is part of a coalition of right-leaning organizations with financial ties to billionaire businessmen and political activists Charles and David Koch, will launch a six-figure campaign aimed at convincing young people to “opt-out” of the Obamacare exchanges. Later this month, the group will begin a tour of 20 college campuses, where they plan to set up shop alongside pro-Obamacare activists such as Enroll America that are working to sign people up for the insurance exchanges.

Generation Opportunity intends to host events at college football tailgate parties festivals, where “brand ambassadors” (read: hot young people) will pass out beer koozies that read “opt out,” pizza and literature about the health care law. Some events may have impromptu dance parties with DJ’s, complete with games of cornhole and competitions for prizes, organizers said.

Their message: You don’t have to sign up for Obamacare. And they want students to sign a pledge not get insurance plans set up by the law.

“What we’re trying to communicate is, 'No, you’re actually not required to buy health insurance,'” Generation Opportunity President Evan Feinberg told Yahoo News in an interview about the campaign. “You might have to pay a fine, but that’s going to be cheaper for you and better for you.” [Pols emphasis]

We haven't heard yet if any Colorado college campuses are being targeted by this group, but we wouldn't be a bit surprised to see them on the Boulder University of Colorado campus or elsewhere in our swing state. The insidious message here, that it's better for young people to go uninsured than buy heath insurance through an exchange established by "Obamacare," is of course a terrible recommendation public policy-wise. Before it became fashionable on the right to reject everything even remotely connected to President Barack Obama, an individual mandate to purchase health insurance was the recommendation of conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation–who realized that the system needed fixing by bringing young people into the insurance risk pool. To tell young people today they should be uninsured is probably the most effective thing the right can do to undermine health care reform, and the destructive side effects are acceptable in pursuit of that goal.

Fortunately, the only thing this ad will convince anyone of is that the people who made it have issues.

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Udall Afraid of Hill, Unnamed Source Probably Named Hill Tells Hill. Donate to Hill!

UPDATE: According to the Denver daily paper, Ken Buck has filed paperwork with the FEC to run for Senate in 2014, making Owen Hill debatably, by a slim margin, the second-least laughable of the 2014 Republican US Senate primary candidates. I'm quite sure that the lessons Buck learned from losing his last Senate race have prepared him to lose this one much better.

Owen Hill, by a slim margin the least laughable (so far) of 2014 Republican US Senate primary candidates, informed supporters of some important breaking news today. A fundraising email dated August 7 breathlessly declares, "Breaking: Inside source says Udall only fears Owen Hill." 

Only? Could it be that Udall recoiled after detecting a case of Hill-itosis? Did Udall have a bad experience with pastel striped ties during his boyhood? Let's dive a bit deeper and see what's so frightening to the well-funded and popular incumbent, shall we? In Hill's words:

 I just received some very important inside information I must share it with you first.

 After 17 years as a career politician… U.S. Senator Mark Udall is scared for his political future.

Those aren't my words. Those words come from someone deep inside Mark Udall's operation, and he isn't just scared of anyone. According to insiders familiar with this race, there is only one announced or even potential Republican candidate Democrat Mark Udall doesn't want to run against… and that is me.

(The glaring proofreading error in the first sentence is Hill's, not mine, and was included in the final-draft email.) 

I can't be too hard on the rookie state senator for his ridiculous fundraising pitch. After all, down on their luck Dilbert characters need work, too…

Read on for the full email and a Pointy Haired Boss worthy use of the word "innovating." 

Full text of Hill's silly fundraising pitch — only the link to donate has been removed. You can find it, if you feel moved to give to Hill's Home for Unwanted Hyperbolic Copywriters:

I just received some very important inside information I must share it with you first.

After 17 years as a career politician… U.S. Senator Mark Udall is scared for his political future.

Those aren't my words. Those words come from someone deep inside Mark Udall's operation, and he isn't just scared of anyone. According to insiders familiar with this race, there is only one announced or even potential Republican candidate Democrat Mark Udall doesn't want to run against… and that is me.

Show your support for my campaign; make a donation of $20, $50, or $100 to help me show Udall to the door.

Moreover, Mark Udall's political ally and fellow Colorado Senator, Mike Bennett head of the hyper-partisan Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), is already spending thousands of dollars digging into my conservative record. In fact, I'm the only Colorado candidate for U.S. Senate that Bennett is looking into.

And it's no wonder. Of course a career politician with a record of bankrupting our country with wasteful boondoggles like Solyndra and empty "stimulus" give-a-ways would be wary of defending his abysmal record against an independent conservative like me.

You see, I don't fit the political mold that Udall and national Democrats are used to running against.

I'm part of a new generation of conservative leadership responsible for innovating better ways to reach swing voters. I have dedicated my entire career to helping others, through non-profits, fighting to protect citizens as a military veteran, and now, as a State Senator. My goal is to stand up and speak for those without a voice. My faith in a loving God and devotion to my wife Emily and our four children spur me to lead the charge in fixing our broken government.

The only thing standing in the way of defeating the Democrats and Mark Udall is his massive multi-million dollar war chest.

And that's where you come in. While we don't need to match Udall dollar for dollar, this campaign can't succeed without your immediate help.

Will you support my campaign with an important contribution today? Chip in a donation of $20, $50, $100, or what you can afford right away please.

Udall's afraid and should be. He knows the era of big tax and spend government is coming to a close. But rather than grumble about Udall, join me to bring new leadership to advance our conservative values.

Warmly, 

P.S. There's a reason Udall doesn't want to run against me. He can't defend his wasteful record and he knows my leadership can restore the Republican Party in Colorado. In addition, on a tele-townhall last week Udall admitted to supporters that Republicans have a "5-6 point advantage" in the 2014 midterm elections. Your support is crucial to showing Udall he is right to be afraid. Please, make a donation of $20, $50 or $100 right now.

"Responsible for innovating better ways to reach swing voters?"

Well. Okay. I suppose making shit up and attributing it to unnamed inside sources is perhaps a "better way to reach swing voters," but I think you're supposed to earn their support, not just "reach" them, if you want to win. 

However, Senator Hill, you may have a bright future in political comedy, should you fall short in your current aspirations. Have you considered an internship on Colbert?

Colorado native, young professional, progressive cowgirl. 4-term FPE (aka masochist).

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