Editor's note: Through Nov. 4, we will regularly analyze campaign claims via our Political Polygraph.

Claim: "I'm sure (Abramoff's) not pleased with the sweatshop I helped shut down."

— Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, speaking last
week to The Denver Post editorial board about efforts to connect him to
jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff

Facts: As a congressman, Schaffer visited Mariana
Islands garment factories on a 1999 fact-finding trip paid for by the
conservative Christian group Traditional Values Coalition, which was
later linked to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

In April, Schaffer told The Post the islands' imported labor
was a "model" for U.S. immigration. Later, he told The Post and the
Rocky Mountain News that "he was told" a factory had been shut down
after he interceded.

Michael Rubin, a San Francisco attorney who negotiated $20
million settlements on behalf of garment factory workers, said one or
two factories declared bankruptcy and closed after the 2003 settlement
"but certainly no one was shut down as a result of a government
investigation."

Rubin, who said he had been looking into labor practices in
the Mariana Islands for months before filing the lawsuits in 1999,
said, "I'm not aware of any (Mariana Islands) garment factories ever
having been shut down by federal or (local) authorities."

Schaffer's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, on Tuesday said:
"Bob Schaffer was told after he left (the Mariana Islands) that because
of a visit he made to one of those facilities, action was taken against
that facility."

Karen Auge, The Denver Post

Claim: "My quotes were misreported."

That's Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall, during an
interview Friday with the blog PolitikerCO. He's referring to the
statement he made during a mini Senate debate on Meet the Press, when
he called for Rep. Charles Rangel to give up his chairmanship of the
powerful House Ways and Means Committee during on ongoing ethics
investigation.

Facts: Claiming that his comment — "I think it would be
helpful if Charles Rangel stepped down" — was misreported is flatly
untrue and a surprising statement, given the fact that Udall made it on
national television. He may be claiming that he didn't mean it as a
call for Rangel to step down, given that Udall also said in the same
interview, "I think it's his decision whether he steps down or not as
chairman."

Still, trying to clarify his comments is not the same as
saying they were "misreported." And to just about anyone, the phrase "I
think it would be helpful if Charles Rangel stepped down" means just
that: Udall thinks Rangel should step down.

Claim: "That statement you read I think is even more than a
year old already, and it was before there was a clear indication that
the surge had
worked."

That's Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, a week ago
on "Meet the Press," when moderator Tom Brokaw read back Schaffer's
remarks that a U.S. troop pullout should only come once Iraq is stable,
something which is "not going to be in the next two or three years,
mostly likely."

Facts: In fact, Schaffer made that comment during a Senate
debate in July, less than three months ago and long after it had been
clear to U.S. military officials and the public that the troop surge
was working.

Claim: "I never called for a moratorium. I called for a smart, phased development of the Roan Plateau."
- Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall, during his first debate with GOP opponent Bob Schaffer on July 14.

Facts: In 2007, Udall and U.S. Rep. John Salazar inserted a provision into the energy bill that would have prohibited drilling on top of the plateau, allowing natural-gas reserves to be accessed only by directional drilling from the plateau's base.

Although estimates differ, the best guess is that directional technology still isn't sophisticated enough to reach at least 20 percent of the natural gas under the Roan, effectively putting some of the reserves off limits.

Claim: "The guy I'm running against actually proposed a 50-cents-per-gallon tax increase. There are people in Washington who want gas prices to be higher."
- Republican Bob Schaffer, speaking to a group of voters in Saguache last week.

Facts: At an energy conference in June 2002, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, an Eldorado Springs Democrat, was asked, if there was a bill to raise gas taxes by 50 cents a gallon, would he vote for it. According to an article in the Foster Natural Gas Report, Udall responded: "If there were ever 217 other members of the House willing to face the firing squad, yes. . . . This country is not ready for that approach."

Udall never proposed such an increase. Even at the time, his support was based on a condition he said was unlikely to occur.