August 20, 2010 09:54 PM UTC

FOP Backs Perlmutter, Unless You Visit Frazier's Website

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE (2:12 p.m.): That didn’t take long. Frazier’s campaign website has already been fixed so that the press release with the FOP endorsement is now gone.

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Yesterday Democrat Ed Perlmutter’s campaign sent out a press release (full release after the jump) noting that he had received the unanimous endorsement of the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). What makes this newsworthy, you say? Well, the fact that Republican CD-7 challenger Ryan Frazier also claims to have been endorsed by the FOP.

According to a press release on Frazier’s website:

The Board of Directors for the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 49 of the Aurora Police Department today announced their unanimous decision to endorse Ryan Frazier’s candidacy for the 7th Congressional District of Colorado. Frazier earned the endorsement for his leadership role as an Aurora City Councilman and his dedication to public safety.

So how did the Colorado FOP “unanimously” endorse Perlmutter while the Aurora FOP “unanimously” endorse Frazier? Apparently the Aurora FOP isn’t actually permitted to offer an endorsement of its own, and the only FOP endorsement you can get in Colorado comes from the state organization. The Colorado FOP has apparently asked Frazier to remove the endorsement from his website, which obviously hasn’t happened yet.

PERLMUTTER RECEIVES UNANIMOUS ENDORSEMENT OF COLORADO FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE

“Representative Ed Perlmutter is a leader of integrity, character, and courage, whose record of supporting Colorado’s law enforcement community is unmatched,”

-Frank Gale, President Colorado Fraternal Order of Police

Perlmutter Opponent, Ryan Frazier, Flip-Flops on Support for Cops

Golden, CO – Today, Ed Perlmutter, Congressman from the 7th Congressional District, announced  he received the unanimous endorsement of the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)  .  The Colorado FOP is the largest representative organization of police in Colorado.

Perlmutter received the endorsement on Saturday during the regular monthly meeting of the Colorado FOP Colorado based on his long history of support for our local law enforcement officers. (See attached letter of endorsement).

“Ed’s long record of support for police officers and law enforcement in the 7th Congressional District and throughout the state is unmatched.  From helping us keep police officers on the job and equipping them with the resources they need to protect our neighborhoods, to making CopLink a reality in the metro area, his work on behalf of our community has been tireless.  We couldn’t ask for a better voice, a better champion, a better neighbor, to represent the 7th Congressional District and continue helping us serve and protect the citizens of this area.  That’s why we gave him our unanimous endorsement and support,” said Frank Gale, the President of the Colorado FOP.

“I am honored to receive this unanimous endorsement,” said Perlmutter. “Our police officers and law enforcement personnel put their lives on the line for us every day, and I want to continue making sure they have the resources they need to do their job keeping us safe and secure. ”

Ed sat on the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment for the House Homeland Security Committee  (committee that deals with local law enforcement issues). Ed has a long history of supporting local law enforcement and public safety initiatives from his on-the-ground support of the CopLink program to his time in private law practice representing the county sheriff’s association legal matters, and his state senate efforts to help pass the Amber Alert law,

While Perlmutter consistently voted for more police officers on our streets, his opponent, Ryan Frazier, continues to flip flop and say one thing about how he is supportive of law enforcement officers, while his actions show a different story.

While Frazier was a vocal advocate of a voter approved mandate to hire two cops per thousand residents during his first city council race, Frazier was the lone city council member who opposed this effort when it came time to vote to send the measure back to the voters for funding approval, stating “‘Who said two officers per 1,000 residents was what we need to go after in the first place?'(Aurora Sentinel Sunday, April 4, 2004).

Additionally, Frazier, who sits on the Public Safety Committee for the City Council and works for the taxpayers of Aurora has been labeled the most absent councilman in Aurora missing approximately 30% of the last 53 City Council meetings in the past two years. (Colorado Independent, Weds., August 18, 2010).

Below are some of Ed’s law enforcement accomplishments from law career, from the state senate and in Congress:

·         Saving Law Enforcement Jobs: Ed voted to support the bill that will prevent the layoffs of tens of thousands of police officers and firefighters by closing the loophole on multinational corporations who outsource American jobs.

·         COPLINK:  Ed secured $587,000 for the North Metro Task Force (which includes Adams County) to purchase COPLINK, a real-time, integrated criminal database.

·         Open Source Enhancement Act (HR 3815):  Ed introduced and passed out of the House the Open Source Enhancement Act to provide local law enforcement consolidated reports detailing the latest trends and activity in the world of homeland security and recommendations on how to apply these developments into day-to-day police work.

·         Methamphetamine Response Collaborative:  Ed secured $1.052 million for Jefferson County to purchase equipment related to their meth response unit.

·         Represented County Sheriff’s Association: In 2003, while in private law practice, Ed represented the county Sheriff’s Association in connection with business and financial transactions.

·         See Something, Say Something Act:  In May 2007, Ed broke party-lines to vote for an amendment on the Rail and Public Transportation Security Act which provided legal immunity from any liability an individual might encounter as a result of reporting suspicious activity.

·         Sponsored Family Testimony Bill in Murder Trials: In the state senate, Ed sponsored and passed the law allowing families of murder victims to testify during sentencing of the perpetrator.  This was in response to the murder of Officer Mossbrucker in Jefferson County.

·         Sponsored Domestic Violence Data:  Ed was the primary sponsor in the state senate of a law making courts help out families more in domestic violence cases.

·         Amber Alert:  Ed sponsored and helped pass the law establishing the Amber Alert System to notify broadcast media statewide when an abduction of a child is confirmed.