September 27, 2018 10:13 AM UTC

Giffords PAC Acts Swiftly After Ad Hits Too Close To Home

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• by: Colorado Pols

Denver7’s Blair Miller reports on a controversy that erupted this week over an ad from Giffords PAC, hitting Rep. Mike Coffman’s opposition to gun safety laws and support from the National Rifle Association with a visual that bore a disturbing similarity to actual events in Colorado over a decade ago:

The parents of Emily Keyes said Wednesday that the super PAC behind an ad that depicted text messages similar to those sent during the final moments of her life had apologized, and said they believe the similarities were unintentional…

John-Michael and Ellen Keyes said in a statement the PAC had spoken with them and that they were satisfied with the committee’s response.

“Our initial response was profound disappointment…. The Giffords organization reached out to us directly to offer both their regret and apologies,” the Keyes said in a statement to Denver7. “They assured us that the similarities were coincidental and they would be altering the advertisement and reposting a new version on social media and other internet sites. We believe that any connection to the tragedy our family experienced was unintentional.” [Pols emphasis]

“We respect the ability to exercise a political voice and we understand that mistakes happen,” they added. “We appreciate the prompt attention paid by the Giffords organization and their commitment to remedy the situation.”

Although the text message dramatization in the ad does not recite the exchange of texts between 2006 school shooting victim Emily Keyes and her family verbatim, the use of the first name “Emily” was considered by many local observers to be close enough–and the fact that Coffman wasn’t elected to Congress until two years after the 2006 Platte Canyon High School shooting gave Coffman an opening to cry foul.

With that said, Coffman’s long record of support for and backing from the NRA is a matter of public record and has been a liability for years–more so since the July 2012 Aurora theater mass shooting in the heart of his district. It’s an issue that Coffman most certainly doesn’t need resurfacing in any capacity in the October before the toughest general election of his lifetime, an election in which Coffman has fled to the center on every available issue in hope not being swept away by an anti-Trump wave. That’s why Coffman seized on the negative initial response from the Keyes family–and howled from behind the family’s justifiable upset about how the ad is “beneath basic human dignity.”

Once the family is satisfied with the explanation from Giffords PAC and the changes to the ad, however, Coffman’s faux outrage lost its cover. Now, the only fact that remains is that Mike Coffman has an A+ rating from the NRA. Which is distantly out of step with a majority of voters in CD-6. And unlike previous elections, the polls say the voters in CD-6 get it now.

So, as they say, protest too much while you can.