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October 23, 2014 03:29 PM UTC

Seriously, Walker, You Should Probably Stop Doing That

  • 14 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Republican Walker Stapleton
This email sent out by Stapleton’s campaign on Thursday wants to make sure you know that he is being accused of not showing up to work.

Republican State Treasurer Walker Stapleton is clearly worried about recent polling results showing that he is perilously close to losing his re-election bid to Democrat Betsy Markey. Questions about Stapleton's apparent disinterest in actually showing up to his office seem to have hit a sweet spot with voters, and Markey wasted little time getting right to the heart of the issue in her first TV ad:

At best…it’s inexcusable. At worst…it’s a scandal.

State Treasurer Walker Stapleton. Official key-card records from his Denver office confirm… Stapleton only bothers showing up at his office around ten days a month.

Often, skipping the office for weeks at a time. Or only showing up after three P.M.

For those who have yet to see the ad, worry not. For some completely inexplicable reason, Stapleton and his Republican pals are doing everything they can to make sure you are aware of the accusations against him. On Thursday, Stapleton's campaign sent out an email linking to a 9News "Truth Test" about Markey's ad; while 9News says there is "no proof" to the claims made in the ad, the "Truth Test" doesn't exactly set Stapleton free:

It's important to note that we can't prove the Markey campaign's claim wrong, either.

We asked Stapleton to respond and he called the attacks "total B.S." in a phone interview with 9NEWS.

"I don't bring my key card into work every day," said Stapleton. "And when I don't, the public entrance is closer to my car than the other entrances and sometimes people open the doors for me. The main point is every single day that I'm in Denver on my schedule I'm in the office. [Pols emhpasis]. And to suggest otherwise is a complete bold-faced lie."

The campaign for Democratic challenger Betsy Markey sent us plenty of other items to back up their theme, including a scheduling calendar and attendance records at board meetings.

None of these items prove the claims in their ad.

Likewise, Stapleton's campaign couldn't provide records to disprove them either. [Pols emphasis]

Come again? "The main point is every single day that I'm in Denver on my schedule I'm in the office." What the hell does that mean? He's always in his office, if he's in Denver…and if it's on his schedule? WTF?

Look, we get that Stapleton believes his campaign is in trouble, in large part because of Markey's ad, and that he wants to do whatever he can to dispute the allegations. However, if Stapleton can't prove them wrong, he should probably shut up about this. Markey doesn't have millions of dollars to saturate the air waves in a down ballot race like State Treasurer, so it seems pretty obvious that the best course of action is to just ride this out while coming up with your own separate messaging.

Stapleton has long been mentioned as a potential Republican candidate for Governor in 2018, so perhaps he's trying to diminish this attack for reasons beyond 2014 (although, at this point, we'd wager that Stapleton has pretty well disqualified himself as a serious challenger for Governor anyway). Whatever the reasoning, the logic is flawed; the best way to deal with damning allegations is usually not to keep bringing them up on your own.

Have you ever known someone who gets a bad haircut and is so worried about appearances that they can't stop talking about it? That's pretty much Walker Stapleton in a nutshell.

Comments

14 thoughts on “Seriously, Walker, You Should Probably Stop Doing That

  1. This Stapleton dude reminds me of the hilarious presidential "campaign" of that tired old basset-hound Fred "GOP White Knight and Savior" Thompson some years back.

    "What, you mean I actually have to get out of my warm comfy bed and go out there and campaign? What are you, nuts? Set my alarm for next Tuesday. And let me know when I've prevailed."

  2. ". . . every single day that I'm in Denver on my schedule I'm in the office."

    Strange wording. I've repeated it to myself several times, with various tones, inflections. Doesn't matter – strange. Most logical conclusion: He has a job somewhere outside of Denver, and occasionally he does get to Denver, and WHEN HE DOES by golly, he gets to the office.

     

    1. You mean this job?

      Weeks after Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton took office this past January he drew a flurry of questions about a lucrative consulting contract he made with SonomaWest Holdings, the Northern California real-estate firm he headed for years as CEO. Stapleton arranged to work for up to 250 hours per year with Sonoma for $150,000 while acting as Colorado's treasurer

      Read the whole story at The Colorado Independent

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/walker-stapleton-business_n_843167.html

      1.  Why hasn't Stapleton caught the same hell for this that Gessler did when he announced that he would be moonlighting at his law firm while serving as SoS.

        1. Because while Stapleton's moonlighting gig appears to be his primary focus, it isn't considered a conflict of interest, unlike Gessler's two jobs where he would be arguing both sides of the same case.

  3. So scheduling calendars and meeting minutes don't, according to 9news, support either side.  I take that to mean that they don't prove that he never works, and don't prove that he's working anything close to full time.

    Well, how about doing a little bit of reporting and telling us what they do mean. How much does Stapleton actually work?  What do people in his office say about his work habits?   How often is he actually in Denver?

    1. I would think the Treasurer would have something to do on most days.  Not having anything on his calendar seems like pretty strong proof that he didn't sneak in behind someone else on those days…

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