July 16, 2024 11:28 AM UTC

Hurd, Evans Play Amnesia Games On Anti-Abortion Votes

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado Sun’s Jesse Paul reports today on the issue of abortion as it affects competitive congressional races in our state–in particular the coming showdown between Democratic CO-03 once and future contender Adam Frisch and Grand Junction attorney Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd. Hurd, as readers know, was recruited by Republican institutional unfriends of Boebert to challenge her in last month’s primary, then found himself the frontrunner in an open race after Boebert took her magic carpetbag ride to the Eastern Plains.

Looking at how the abortion issue plays in the red-leaning Third District, Paul looked at the defeat in 2020 of Proposition 115, a 22-week abortion ban measure that failed badly in the statewide vote, albeit by a smaller margin in CO-03:

A Colorado Sun analysis shows the measure lost by just over 2,200 votes — or 0.5 percentage points — in the 26 counties that are entirely in the 3rd District. Statewide, Proposition 115 failed by a margin of roughly 570,000 votes, or 18 percentage points.

That is a much narrower loss than Proposition 115 suffered statewide, though it should be noted that the subsequent overturning of Roe v. Wade and the thrusting of abortion to the political forefront as once-presumed abortion rights were suddenly put in danger has created a greater sense of urgency in pro-abortion rights voters today. That could well express itself in the vote this November for a measure to enshrine abortion rights in Colorado’s constitution, which is expected to pass by at least as great a margin as Proposition 115 failed.

From here, the next logical step was to ask candidates about the issue, and a good place to start would naturally be the last statewide vote on abortion, Proposition 115.

And that’s where things got weird:

Hurd said he couldn’t remember how he voted on Proposition 115 in 2020, [Pols emphasis] when he was a private citizen, but the fact that it didn’t include exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest gave him pause. However, he called the number of weeks prescribed in the measure — 22 weeks of gestation — as “pragmatic.”

Full stop. Jeff Hurd may not have much political experience, but as an attorney with the prestigious Ireland Stapleton law firm Hurd enjoys the presumption of being a smart guy. Moreover, Hurd is very far from the age when Ronald Reagan was conveniently forgetting the details of the Iran-Contra affair (just as one example though surely there are others). Are we to seriously believe that Hurd doesn’t remember how he voted on a statewide abortion ban measure less than four years ago? If so, what does that say about Hurd’s competency?

Given that Hurd has kept a variety of his political views on hot-button issues close to the vest, even refusing to commit to supporting Donald Trump in the November elections during the primary, Hurd’s refusal to provide a straight answer about Proposition 115 could be attributed to Hurd’s personal lack of candor. But it appears that Jeff Hurd isn’t the only Republican running for Congress in Colorado who has developed a sudden case of extremely selective amnesia:

[Gabe] Evans said he’s not sure at what point in gestation abortion should be banned.

“We can’t paint ourselves into a corner with too-strict laws,” he said, adding that he couldn’t remember how he voted when he was a private citizen in 2020 on Proposition 115, [Pols emphasis] the Colorado ballot measure that would have banned abortion after 22 weeks of gestation.

That’s right, despite a decade as a police officer and a side gig flying helicopters for the Army, CO-08 GOP candidate Gabe Evans can’t remember how he voted on the last attempt to restrict abortion less than four years ago! Just like with Jeff Hurd, either Evans is admitting to some very early onset cognitive decline, or he doesn’t want how he voted on Proposition 115 in the public record. And what are the odds of both of these fit young men being suddenly afflicted with selective amnesia about the very same vote?

In 2022, as readers will recall, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Joe O’Dea shattered the illusion that he was not a threat to abortion rights when he admitted without prompting to having voted for Proposition 115, being promptly hammered over the measure’s lack of protections for victims of rape and incest and forced at length to waffle and claim ignorance of the measure’s full impacts. Since both Hurd and Evans have praised the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade, Proposition 115 is the best available yardstick for how these candidates would approach abortion rights in our state.

That’s why no one should accept their ridiculous selective amnesia on this defining issue. It’s an insult not just to their own intelligence, but to all of ours too.