On Monday, political blog ColoradoPols.com mocked Rep. Robert Ramirez's latest campaign brochure sparking a controversy that has some asking if the tongue-in-cheek blog post went too far.
It all began when ColoradoPols published a scathing breakdown of Ramirez's (R-Westminster) latest campaign mailer calling it "one of the worst campaign pieces" the blog staff had ever seen.
ColoradoPols mocks several questionable choices in the mailer including: a list of six "accomplishments" with bullet point number three missing, a link to Ramirez Facebook page printed on the mailer which is faulted for being both unmemorable by including HTML code and also for not actually clickable on a printed brochure, and for several photos choices including a collage that includes an image of Ramirez with McDonald's mascot Ronald McDonald, a side-profile picture that the blog notes "looks like some cross between a Kentucky Militia leader and the Unabomber," and one with a young girl -- Ramirez's daughter -- which is where Ramirez's push back begins. ColoradoPols notes about the image of the girl:
That attractive blonde woman posing with Ramirez in the upper left-hand corner? That's not his wife (his wife appears alongside the representative in a much smaller photo adorned in a kung-fu uniform).
Later after some controversy began to boil, ColoradoPols reportedly added the line: "The woman in the picture may be a family member, but Ramirez should probably point that out in a caption."
The ColoradoPols piece, which also appeared on partner site JeffcoPols, skewers nearly the entire Ramirez mailer, but it was the line about his 14-year-old daughter that sparked a flood of tweets. Susie Ramirez, Robert's wife tweeted on Monday afternoon:
Around the same time, Ramirez, apparently incensed by the post, began tweeting multiple photos of himself with his daughter including this one with Karl Rove:
Conservative blog Colorado Peak Politics came to Ramirez's defense posting about the debacle on their website calling the ColoradoPols piece "creepy" and "lame," and tweeted:
Ramirez spoke with Fox31 on Monday and told them he's very upset. "They can think what they want about my mailer, but to talk about my daughter and insinuate that I’m running around on my wife, that bothers me. And it bothers my wife and daughter more than me."
However Jason Bane, co-founder of ColoradoPols, told to The Denver Post that the blog post was not suggesting Ramirez was having an affair and that conservatives are manufacturing the outrage. "There was certainly no insinuation that he was cheating. It was just that he had this random collage of pictures. How are we supposed to know the woman in the karate outfit is his wife? And is Ronald McDonald his uncle?”
Ramirez, a Republican, narrowly won the House District 29 seat two years ago and Tracy Kraft-Tharpe, his challenger, is trying to take the toss-up seat back for the Democrats.
What do you think, fair outrage or manufactured? Let us know in the comments below.
Twitter reactions to ColoradoPols piece: