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Fact-checking ads in the 8th Congressional District race

Monicel
Fact-checking ads in the 8th Congressional District race

It’s that time of year when campaign ads seem to be everywhere: TV, social media, streaming services and the mailbox, especially if you live in a district that has a competitive race.

And while some ads have good information, many attack ads contain the bad and the ugly.

Colorado’s 8th Congressional District

The race that has garnered the most political funding is the state seat, where Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo is defending her seat for the first time against Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans.

Like 2022, many of the ads seek to tie Caraveo to the fentanyl crisis.

The Republican National Congressional Committee, the Republican campaign arm, has released two ads: one featuring an unnamed drug enforcement agent and the other a former drug user.

“When Caraveo put his name on this bill, decriminalizing fentanyl, he signed the death warrants for hundreds of people,” Thomas, the former drug user, said in the announcement.

Context: The ads stem from a 2019 bipartisan bill Caraveo co-sponsored while in the state House, along with more than 25 others, that made possession of 4 grams or less (single use) of a Schedule 1 or 2 drug as a misdemeanor. of a crime The dealers would still face felony charges. Caraveo was not the only one to support the idea. It passed the state House 43-20. Caraveo also voted in favor of a 2022 bill that reversed that law’s criminal penalties as fentanyl-related deaths rose in the state.

Border security and fentanyl death

Another ad, this one from the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC backed by the Republican House leadership, features a mother whose daughter died from a fentanyl pill that crossed the border. The ad says Caraveo voted against solving the border crisis by cracking down on cartels and voted to decriminalize fentanyl (see above). “Yadira Caraveo had a chance to stop this and did nothing.”

Context: This is an exaggeration. The announcement again focuses on the 2019 bill, as well as Caraveo’s vote for a House bill in Congress, HR 2, the Secure the Border Act. It’s a conservative Republican border bill that passed with only Republican votes (two Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against it) and the bipartisan bill failed to pass in the Senate. Caraveo has supported other border security measures in the House, some that had bipartisan support, that have also failed to advance, as well as the Senate’s bipartisan border security bill that failed to move forward after House Republicans they said he would be dead in this room.

Neither side has done much on border security, an issue that will require bipartisan negotiation and cooperation. Caraveo has voted for bills that have funded border security and increased the number of Border Security Agents, something not every Colorado representative in Congress can say.

Additionally, the ad conflates border security with the fentanyl crisis. The majority of fentanyl that crosses the border does so at legal points of entry, and the vast majority arrives, not through migrants, but with those who are legally authorized to cross the border, more than half of whom are northerners. – Americans

Bipartisan record

The Congressional Leadership Fund’s most recent ad against Caraveo points to her bipartisan credentials with a man calling her a “liar” and a “liberal extremist.” Another says he votes with his party 90 percent of the time and that their families are worse off since Caraveo was elected.

Context: This ad makes some bold false claims such as Caraveo lying about his bipartisan record and not working with Republicans. According to the Lugar Center bipartisan index, Caraveo was 28th bipartisan majority of members out of 436 in the first year out of 118th congress The stand-alone bill that passed, the TRANQ Research Act, was offered in partnership with GOP Rep. Mike Collins.

The announcement focuses on votes, but many House votes are party-line votes, such as rules votes and the motion to recommit. Caraveo has broken with the Democratic Party on votes on bills or resolutions that deal with energy, border security and immigration. Caraveo angered many Democrats when he voted for a resolution condemning Vice President Harris as the “border czar.” But again, some context: In an analysis of CPR News voting data released by ProPublica, Caraveo ranks 11th among Democrats who have broken with their party the most in votes. Former Republican Rep. Ken Buck, who is the top-ranked Colorado member on this list, broke with his party in votes about 82 percent of the time.

As for other claims in the ad (crime, drugs, homelessness getting worse or that she said she would fix things but make things worse), crime and homelessness are local issues, not one that a single member of Congress is responsible For more information on drug claims, see the previous analysis of a different ad. Furthermore, Caraveo’s — and indeed his entire party’s — ability to turn things around on his own is limited: Caraveo entered the House with Democrats in the minority and Republicans in the majority, so part of the blame for not doing more rests with the party that controls the chamber.

More border security

Gabe Evans’ campaign, with the NRCC, has also released an attack ad against Caraveo. Surrounded by law enforcement officers, one of whom says “drugs and crime flow into our community,” Evans adds, “And Yadira Caraveo is responsible for all of it.” They continue to talk about cut police budgets, while Evans brings up his background as a former police officer and military helicopter pilot, saying he’ll be able to do it.

Context: This is a huge exaggeration. First, again Caraveo is one of the 435 members of the Chamber, he is not responsible for everything, not even close. There is a lot of blame, again on both sides, for not working together to achieve a decades-long solution on border security. Also, when Republicans controlled all three branches of government, they couldn’t fix the border problem either, so it’s not just a Democrat problem. Also, Congress is not responsible for police budgets, meaning local governments, and there are several former law enforcement and military veterans in Congress who have not been able to do border security or immigration in the Capitol. Ultimately, Evans said he would have voted against the Senate’s bipartisan border security bill, but the Border Patrol Union supported the bill. Caraveo would have supported the passage of this bill.

Evans and abortion

The House Majority PAC, led by Democratic leaders, has also sponsored attack ads against Evans on issues they believe could persuade voters, including abortion.

An ad features an obstetrician-gynecologist who says Evans supports the ban on abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.

Context: Exaggeration and from a different era. Evans’ position on abortion has changed from running for state in 2022 to now running for Congress in 2024. In a 2022 candidate poll, Evans checked a box indicating he had supported the prohibition of abortion except to save the life of the mother. Evans, who is anti-abortion, explained that’s what the box said, so he checked it. But below that poll question, there was another box where I could add additional comments. He used it, but not to indicate his support for including exceptions for rape or incest. Now, Evans says he supports exceptions to abortion for rape, incest and to save a woman’s life, and would oppose a national abortion ban.

MAGA Extremist?

Caraveo has also thrown some jabs at Evans. One ad features an unaffiliated Iraq war vet who is fed up with “partisan games” and says all he sees in Washington are “MAGA extremists like Gabe Evans.” The vet says Evans wants to ban abortion, invalidate gay marriage and rewrite the Constitution.

Context: As far as CPR News can find, Evans has never talked about rewriting the Constitution. The rest of the ad is exaggeration. Evans has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump and spoke at Trump’s rally in Aurora. But Evans has said Joe Biden won the 2020 election (although he has questions about how Pennsylvania conducted the election). Evans also touts his ability to work across the aisle by pointing to his time in the state house. While there, he was not part of the MAGA wing. He also says he opposes a national abortion ban.

In the same survey that yielded the abortion response, Evans selected “strongly agree” that marriage is a “God-ordained, sacred, legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to amend this definition.” He told 9News that in answering that question, he agreed that the government shouldn’t tell a church how to define marriage.

The claim against gay marriage also appears to be based on a letter he wrote to a local newspaper when he was 17. In it, Evans said same-sex marriage was a bad idea and, if passed, would allow other activities such as incest. In a recent interview, Evans says his position on gay marriage has changed and that he will support an amendment to remove the Colorado state Constitution’s ban on same-sex marriage. Evans was not in the statehouse when a vote on the ballot measure fell to the floor.

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