After all the fun we’ve had the last few days with gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis’ “Canada looks just like Colorado” authenticity problems, we would be remiss if we failed to note what the Denver Post’s always-fair Lynn Bartels reported alongside the main story:
The Geography Wars continue.
The latest battle is between Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, and Tara Trujillo, spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Mark Udall.
It began today with a Udall press release touting the news that “Tri-State Generation and Transmission has joined with a Duke Energy subsidiary to build the first-ever wind farm on Colorado’s Eastern Plains.”
That prompted Wadhams to get in two digs: at Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Denver, who was appointed to the job earlier this year by Gov. Bill Ritter.
“I guess the wind farms near Lamar and Peetz don’t count as ‘eastern plains,'” Wadhams said. “(Udall) must be hanging around with the accidental senator, Michael Bennet, who thinks Colorado consists of Denver and a couple of high end ski resorts.”
Trujillo said the news release meant to say “central-eastern plains,” and the Website was updated to reflect that…
Well obviously, this was also a screw-up, and the idea that it always meant to read “central-eastern plains” is a bit of a stretch. Most likely attributable to a staffer in DC who may or may not (we’re guessing not) be on the payroll for their intimate local knowledge. Fair enough–if this was 2013 like 2010 is looming for Scott McInnis, we’d tell Udall to be concerned about the little gaffes.
That said, this doesn’t seem to be the first time that Udall’s new Senate staff has left locals with a less-than-exactly impression–we’re reminded of a story in the Pueblo Chieftain a couple of weeks ago, about constituents who came away from meetings with Udall’s DC staff feeling like the staff was unwilling to commit to things that Udall himself had publicly endorsed–a palpable disconnect as they saw it. It takes more than a couple of anecdotes to make a pattern, but we can imagine a meeting at some point between Sen. Udall and staff where the question of who works for whom is thoughtfully re-examined.
UPDATE: To be fair, we were directed Wednesday to a press release from Governor Bill Ritter, also from Monday, titled “First Central-Eastern Plains Wind Farm.” This is helpful to the assertion from Udall’s staff that this was what their release originally meant to say–but that makes us wonder if the awkward “central-eastern plains” wasn’t a last minute editorial save of its own by Ritter’s staff: a key part of which was still, unfortunately, lost in translation.
It’s cool though, another shiny object is sure to present itself between now and 2014.
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n/t
Knows about the wind farms. We’d hate to be the one who didn’t.
Where is ProgressNow on this one? How about sending them a Geography book on Colorado?
I am sure there is more than one person (Tara Trujillo included) in that office who have personally been to eastern plains wind farms with the Senator. That’s says to me the press release was sent without being edited.
Fortunately as Colorado Pols noted, Udall’s not up for re-election next year, so his staff has some time to find their sea legs. And wind farms.
that means Udall’s office is not well managed. Editing & checking press releases is SOP.
If it was troubling that McInnis’ office didn’t pay attention to details on the campaign Web site, it’s equally troubling that Udall’s office didn’t pay attention to details in a press release.
Of course, beyond political people, nobody cares about any of this and, in my view, it adds to the reason why the general public gets annoyed with, offended by, and turns away from politics. Sometimes it’s all so petty.
ProgressNow wouldn’t be ProgressNow if it supported conservatives with its message.
They’re an energy wholesaler, mostly serving rural electric companies like United Power. It’s not even an accurate name – they now serve 4 states (CO, NM, NE and WY).
This press release is very similar to the one on Tri-State’s site. It looks like a joint press release, and I believe it might be Tri-State’s first wind farm – and certainly its first on Colorado’s Eastern Plains. (The Pawnee and Lamar farms are both Excel, IIRC.)
Some staffer took the available joint release verbiage and mangled in the “first wind farm…” tidbit, then let it go without a solid review. I’m with David – bad oversight in the DC office.
…of never admitting to a mistake. Like most politicians Udall doubles down with a lame excuse rather than just say we made a mistake – sorry.
Udall’s office did admit it made a mistake and meant to say whatever it corrected the release to say.
Which part of the admission “Trujillo said the news release meant to say ‘central-eastern plains,’ and the Website was updated to reflect that” is confusing?
Tara admitted the mistake and noted that it had been fixed. Not sure what else you are looking for.
…that’s trying to get off on a technicality. What Trujillo should have said was “sorry, in our excitement about this new wind farm we forgot.”
“its” first ever vs. “the” first ever would have made the press release completely accurate.
Too bad.
I’m a customer, but not necessarily a huge supporter, of one of Tri-State’s customers.
It was a dumb mistake, and one that should have been caught in proofing. Not quite as dumb as putting Denali in Shaffer’s ad touting his Colorado heritage, or even as bad as McInnis’s website asking “What Do You Want for the Future of Colorado” while displaying the Canadian Rockies… But still dumb.
that’s why I said “too bad”
One word. It SHOULD have been caught.