August 14, 2023 11:51 AM UTC

Boebert Milks Franking Privilege Like Nobody Else In Colorado

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• by: Colorado Pols

Marshall Zelinger at 9NEWS reported on Friday evening about new taxpayer-funded advertisements running in vituperously vulnerable Rep. Lauren Boebert’s district, official “franked” communications intended to update constituents but pointedly not for electioneering purposes–in this case coming closer than anything we’ve seen in a franked piece to a campaign message:

An ad paid for by Rocky Mountain Values, which is a group trying to unseat Boebert, attacks the Congresswoman about veteran-related health care.

“There’s one thing that sticks with you from serving is you leave no one behind. But Lauren Boebert voted against healthcare for veterans who were exposed to the toxic burn pits,” veteran George Autobee said in the political ad.

There is a digital and radio ad that Boebert has paid for with taxpayer funds that appears to push back.

“Don’t believe the lies you are hearing about Congresswoman Boebert and veterans,” veteran Richard Hathorne said in an ad that ends with an odd disclaimer. [Pols emphasis]

“Paid for by official funds by the House of Representatives,” the ad ends.

So the first thing to be clear about here, as Zelinger correctly reports, is that these ads were approved by the U.S. House Communications Standards Commission before they were paid for with your taxpayer dollars–and that’s technically bipartisan oversight. This ad nonetheless pushes the boundaries of acceptable taxpayer-funded communications as much as anything we’ve ever seen, in apparent direct response to an opposition TV ad attacking Boebert’s voting record against veterans. One might reasonably conclude that the real problem is lax oversight, which Boebert in her customary manner is exploiting to the limit.

And as Zelinger continues, an election-minded message in her franked communications is not the only way Boebert is pushing the limits:

From January 2021 to March 2023, Boebert spent the most on franked mail pieces.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R): $160,777.50 [Pols emphasis]
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R): $78,953.83…

Not only did Boebert spend the most by far on franked mail pieces of any representative from Colorado, she more than doubled the next-highest tally in the Colorado congressional delegation! If that sounds perfectly consistent with Boebert’s scandalously large mileage reimbursements on the campaign trail in 2020, that’s because it is. Readers will recall those mileage reimbursements came just after a hefty tax lien on Boebert’s restaurant was paid in full–but Boebert insists that she really did drive over 38,000 miles that year, in excess of the circumference of the Earth, across her admittedly spacious district.

CD-3’s geography doesn’t excuse Boebert over spending double what anyone else in Colorado’s delegation spends on franked communications. In the context of Boebert’s anemic fundraising and universally acknowledged vulnerability, this is a desperate misuse of the franking privilege. Combine that with a political message that by any objective standard doesn’t belong in a taxpayer-funded piece of content, and Boebert is exploiting the franking privilege well beyond its intended function.

If the oversight committees won’t do their job, it then becomes a question for the voters.