“Because Joe Miklosi HATES CHILDREN … especially YOURS!”

Um … not really.

This has been a hotly contested race for the 6th Congressional District in Colorado. It’s been a traditionally very safe Republican district (Tom Tancredo was the Representative from here for several terms), and Mike Coffman has been pretty comfortable as the incumbent.  Except that we just redistricted (even though Coffman hasn’t bothered to update his map), and it’s now a pretty even D/R split, which means that the Republicans, especially lately as Coffman was slipping in the polls, have had to pull out all the stops to try and win.

Thus today I got yet another piece of campaign recyclable glossy paper from the Colorado Republican Committee, all about … the EVIL, ANTI-CHILD, PRO-LAWYER, PRO-MOLESTER candidate for US Congress, Joe Miklosi:

Joe Miklosi Left Child Predators on Our Streets.
Miklosi Voted Against  Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Child Predators.
…
Miklosi voted with the lawyers who defend these child predators, turning his back on Colorado’s families.
Joe Miklosi cast one of the deciding votes against Jessica’s Law, leaving dangerous child predators on our streets.
Failing to protect our children.
ONE VOTE.
A lifetime of consequences.

And it points to this page from the Mike Coffman (current R incumbent) campaign, which includes this lovely SCAAAARY VIDEO:

Now, I don’t know Joe Miklosi personally, but I’m pretty sure that neither he (nor Mike Coffman) would actually vote to “leave dangerous child predators on our streets.”

So what was going on here?  Let’s search the Internet!

• Denver Post Fact Check
• KUSA Fact Check (video below)

Long story short:

The “258,000 children abducted each year” number in the ad is goofy scare tactics, since it bears no resemblance to the number of “child predator” sexual attacks that occur in the country each year. (The vast majority of that number is abductions by family members, for example.)

The tale in question has to do with the implementation of a “Jessica’s Law” for Colorado back in 2009.  That’s named after 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was raped and murdered in Florida.  That state’s Jessica’s Law includes mandatory minimum first-time sentences for child sexual predators and mandatory lifetime electronic tracking after release. A couple dozen states have enacted their own versions (in full or in part) of Jessica’s Law.

In 2009, an attempt to pass a Jessica’s Law minimum sentencing provision in Colorado died in committee. Its supporters then tried to attach it as an amendment to another bill to toughen penalties on internet predators. That attempt failed, and Miklosi was one of the people (Democrat and Republican) who voted the amendment down by four votes.

Miklosi says he voted against the amendment because it endangered the internet predator law by adding on an unfunded $19 million price tag.  Also, under Colorado law most child predators were already getting life sentences. (There’s a distinct lack of “because I want child predators out on the street” or “because I like child predators’ lawyers” in his justification.)

Miklosi went on to vote for the internet predator bill.

Bottom line: the Coffman ad trumps up misleading statistics, and offers a gross misrepresentation of what Miklosi did and his motivations in doing so.

(The local police union agrees.)

And sure, yeah, “that’s politics,” but lying about someone supporting child abusers strikes me as more than a bit beyond the pale.

And art of what’s made this whole advertising campaign against Miklosi particularly pernicious is that, while it was running, a young girl named Jessica was kidnapped here in the Denver area.  The Coffman campaign was asked to suspend the ad, but said “it wasn’t possible.”  Really? There were no other ads they couldn’t offer up to the TV stations instead?

It strikes me as particularly pernicious, beyond the (lack of) veracity of the ad campaign, to further take advantage of a tragedy with it.

So, while I’d been inclined to vote for Miklosi over Coffman before, I’m even more so now.  Thanks for making that decision easier, Mike and your Colorado Republican Committee cohorts! May you receive your deserved reward on November 6th!