Attack on Coffman blasted

UPDATE:  Curt Cerveny, the political consultant getting the blame for this attack, has contributed $2,300 to Ted Harvey's Congressional campaign. Cerveny's consulting firm, Politically Direct, has received about $14,500 for work it did for Harvey’s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Harvey said the firm is no longer connected with his campaign and that he had nothing to do with the mailing.

"Absolutely not," Harvey said. "I knew nothing about it."

Steve Ward, another candidate in the race, also said he was not involved.

"If I had the money, I would be spending it very differently," Ward said.

Finally, the campaign pushing the right-to-work initiative, A Better Colorado, also disavowed knowledge of the mailing.

"There is absolutely no connection between our efforts at A Better Colorado and the activities of Protect Colorado Jobs and the mailer in question," campaign spokesman Kelley Harp said.

The hunt for the money behind the mailer continues.

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A mailing attacking Sixth Congressional District candidate Mike Coffman went haywire this morning when the registered agent for the group that took credit for the attack claimed it was done without knowledge of the group's contributors and most of its officers.

Instead, John Berry, the registered agent and secretary-treasurer for the group Protect Colorado Jobs, said the group's chairman, political consultant Curt Cerveny, went rogue and mailed out the attack on his own.

"Curt had failed to run this by myself and the contributors to Protect Colorado Jobs," Berry said. "It was really a surprise to us, and it was outside what Protect Colorado Jobs was set up to do."

Cerveny couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Berry said Cerveny has resigned from Protect Colorado Jobs, and Berry has apologized to the Coffman campaign.

The attack also brought a rare response from retiring U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, whom Coffman and the three other men running in the Republican primary in the district are vying to replace. Tancredo has been reluctant to weigh in on the race and has not endorsed a candidate.

"If any candidate is found to be responsible for mailings or 'push polls' that try to hide the source of the activity I hope the voters of the 6th District will reject not only the message but the messenger," Tancredo said in a statement put out by Coffman's campaign.

The race for the Republican nomination in the conservative district has become increasingly contentious and personal in its closing weeks. Wil Armstrong, another candidate, has begun airing ads on network television that directly attack Coffman, and all the candidates have become more willing to take jabs at each other in their debates.

State senators Ted Harvey and Steve Ward are also running for the nomination.

Protect Colorado Jobs was formed last year as a nonprofit group and has been one of the major financial backers of the right-to-work ballot initiative, Amendment 47. It has contributed nearly $289,000 to the effort but nothing since April, according to secretary of state records.

As a nonprofit, Protect Colorado Jobs does not have to disclose its backers.

The mailing - which attacks Coffman, currently the secretary of state, as a "big government professional politician" - began hitting mailboxes in the Sixth Congressional District this week. Berry said he is unsure whether the attack was paid for by pre-existing Protect Colorado Jobs funds or if Cerveny raised new money to pay for the mailing. Either way, Berry said the mailing broke no laws in terms of its funding.

But Dustin Zvonek, Coffman's campaign manager, said he and Berry are also investigating whether the mailing was coordinated with another candidate's campaign, which would be illegal.

"If we actually are able to show there was some sort of coordination, we will make sure everyone knows about it," Zvonek said. "It's illegal. It's not supposed to happen."

The line of attack is similar to one Armstrong often uses on the campaign trail, with his latest ad calling Coffman "a career politician." The son of former U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong, Wil Armstrong has received endorsements from numerous big-name Republicans, including retiring U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, state Attorney General John Suthers and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Armstrong campaign manager Jack Stansbery said Armstrong's campaign was not involved in the mailing.

"No. Absolutely not," Stansbery said. "...We had no idea that this was going on or anything about the mailing."

Even before this incident, Protect Colorado Jobs was no stranger to controversy. In June, Colorado AFL-CIO executive director Mike Cerbo filed a complaint against the group, alleging that Protect Colorado Jobs was acting illegally as an unregistered issues committee supporting the right-to-work initiative.

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