Democrats on Wednesday called for Rep. Cory Gardner to stop running a television ad that invokes Sen. Mark Udall‘s deceased father.
Gardner, a Republican, is challenging Udall in Colorado’s Senate race, one of the most competitive this year.
Gardner’s latest ad is an attack on Udall, but largely positive in tone. Gardner even describes Udall in the ad as “a real nice guy.”
“He’s a nice guy who will never change the Senate,” Gardner says in the ad. “He is the Senate.”
“Eighteen years in politics, and he’s got two cousins who are senators, too. Mark Udall’s dad even ran for president,” Gardner continues. “My dad, well, he sells tractors, just like my granddad, and I’m darn proud of that.”
For that brief mention of Udall’s late father, Mo, Democrats are calling the ad “disgusting,” and demanding Gardner’s campaign stop airing it on television.
“It’s disgusting that Congressman Gardner would stoop as low as attacking Senator Mark Udall’s late father and it is beneath a candidate running for the U.S. Senate,” said Justin Barasky, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “Congressman Gardner should apologize to Sen. Udall and his family and pull the ad off the air.”
Recent public polling has shown Udall and Gardner locked in a virtual tie.
