November 04, 2024 11:54 AM UTC

Hick Smacks Down Even More Straight-Up Lying From Amendment 80 Campaign

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• by: Colorado Pols

The campaign working to pass Amendment 80, a radical school choice amendment intended to usher in a private school voucher system in Colorado with as-yet unknown but potentially catastrophic fiscal consequences, gained notoriety this election season with a highly controversial text message blast to large audiences of Colorado voters last month falsely suggesting that the head of the Colorado Education Association, one of the initiative’s fiercest opponents, backs the measure. Another message a few days later proclaimed that “Democrats across Colorado” are voting for Amendment 80, similarly deceptive since the measure is the product of right-wing education ideologues and even the state’s pro-charter school Democratic Gov. Jared Polis stayed neutral, warning the measure could lead to expensive litigation to determine its lawful scope.

Over the weekend, dark-money group “Colorado Dawn” struck again–this time using the likenesses of Gov. Polis and Sen. John Hickenlooper to once again falsely suggest Democratic support for Amendment 80:

This time, however, the spam texters at Colorado Dawn may have bitten off more than they can chew. We don’t know the size of the phone list this deceptive text message was sent to, but here’s what Sen. Hickenlooper had to say in response to his 190,000 Twitter/X followers:

For campaigns who make the choice to deliberately push false information to garner support, the trick is always for that false information to spread faster than the debunking that inevitably follows–a task that becomes easier as the election approaches. For Amendment 80’s deliberately mendacious supporters, though, dragging arguably the state’s best-known Democratic lawmaker into their campaign of misinformation could be a falsehood too far. Hick’s high-profile pushback, which we expect to see at least as well-covered as the previous incidents, could reach more voters than the original text did.

If the only sales pitch you have is to lie about who supports you, what does that say about the product you’re selling?