For a reporter, or even a talk-radio host, when a political operative says something is a "distraction," then that's the exact moment to start asking questions.
So Laura Carno, whose organization has raised over $50,000 to recall CO Springs Sen. John Morse, invites scrutiny when she says on KFKA's Amy Oliver Show Aug. 27 (hour two @20:25):
Carno: It's just been this series of distractions, with the Planned Parenthood mail pieces [about the extreme anti-abortion position of Morse's opponent] being the latest distraction [in the recall election]. This [election] isn't about abortion. Supreme Court Justices are not decided in Denver. There's nothing that's going to happen here that's going to harm women. And as a woman...stop trying to manipulate women by saying in 2013 all of these terrible things are going to happen, and they are just not going to.
As I've discussed a couple times recently, abortion issues are not a distraction in state politics. Ask a woman just across the CO border in Utah (and 11 other states), if she thinks it's a pesky distraction to be required, before she can obtain an abortion, to get counseling on the ability of a fetus to feel pain. Read about distractive state abortion laws here and proposed laws in Colorado here.
Carno herself helps run the Colorado Women's Alliance, whose mission includes supporting "research, education and advocacy in areas of concern to women voters." Since when is reproductive health, including abortion, not a concern to women?
Still, Carno feels so strongly about eliminating the abortion distraction from the CO Springs recall election that she and KVOR talk-show host Jeff Crank are pressuring CO Springs TV stations to stop running ads stating, accurately, that Republican recall candidate Bernie Herpin supports the personhood "plan" to codify life as beginning at conception and thus outlawing all abortion and common forms of birth control.
One TV station manager has declined to withdraw the ads, and the others aren't responding, suggesting they agree that the ads are factual.
But this hasn't stopped lawyers associated with Carno from shooting off an Aug. 27 letter, obtained by your humble blogger today, threatening to sue in an apparent attempt to scare broadcasters and Herpin opponents into stopping a radio ad:
Carno-associated lawyer: "I can quickly draft an injunction complaint based on the false ads.... I can have a lawsuit drafted and served by the close of business today. Your measure of damages is probably on the order of several times the cost to run the ads in order to educate the viewers on the truth."
Carno implied that KFKA's Oliver agrees with her that abortion issues are a distraction in the recall election. Regardless, Oliver owes it to women--and the rest of us--to air out why it's not a legitimate topic to discuss.