FACT CHECK: McConnell-Linked Dark Money Allies Mislead Coloradans on Gardner’s Record of Prioritizing Wealthy & Big Corporations

Gardner Failed to Deliver Jobs Touted in Ad, But DID Deliver Tax Breaks for Corporate Special Interests

Denver, CO - Mitch McConnell’s dark money special interest allies are out with a new misleading ad to deceive voters about Senator Cory Gardner’s record of putting wealthy corporate interests ahead of Colorado families and failing to support Colorado’s economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Mitch McConnell’s dark money groups are working overtime to deceive voters about Senator Gardner’s record of working for big corporate and special interests and failing Coloradans in exchange,” said Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson Eli Rosen. “Coloradans are hurting thanks to Trump’s botched pandemic response, but Senator Gardner refuses to stand up to his party bosses, remaining silent when Coloradans need him most.”

The ad, from the Mitch McConnell-linked dark money group One Nation, conspicuously omits that Gardner stood with President Trump “100%” to push through a $2 trillion tax giveaway to the wealthy and big corporations and through his failed pandemic response that has yielded record unemployment and the tragic loss of more than 155,000 American lives. 

Here are the facts Gardner’s dark money allies leave out: 

GARDNER PRIORITIZED BIG CORPORATIONS & THE WEALTHY AHEAD OF COLORADANS

• Gardner voted to keep tax breaks for companies outsourcing Colorado jobs, while congressional Democrats pushed legislation to penalize companies for offshoring jobs.
  
• Gardner played a “key role” in pushing through the $2 trillion GOP tax scam that carved out massive tax cuts to the wealthy and doled out giveaways to big corporations, while leaving Coloradan families behind.
  
• Gardner’s allegiance to corporations and the wealthy has rewarded him with the most corporate PAC money contributions in Colorado Senate history -- a whopping total of $5.7 million.
  
• Gardner has opposed measures to raise the minimum wage and pass paid family leave.

GARDNER DIDN’T SECURE SPACE COMMAND, BUT RAIDED MILLIONS FROM COLORADO MILITARY BASES FOR TRUMP

• In May, CPR reported the Trump administration “said it was completely restarting the search for a permanent home for Space Command” and no decision will be made on the permanent home until after the election.

• Gardner voted three times to let Trump raid military construction funding for his border wall and broke his promise to protect funding for Colorado’s bases as Peterson Air Force Base lost $8 million. Gardner apparently didn’t lift a finger to restore the funding.

• Twelve Republican senators broke with their party to oppose Trump’s sham border wall national emergency that cost Colorado funding -- but not Gardner.

GARDNER AND TRUMP’S COVID RESPONSE HAS FAILED COLORADO’S ECONOMY

• Gardner let emergency unemployment insurance for 330,000 Coloradans expire, breaking his promise that there was “no doubt” the lifeline program would be extended.
  
• Colorado’s unemployment rate went up to 10.5%, “indicating that the state’s jobs situation isn’t dramatically improving as the state continues to reopen after a coronavirus shutdown.”

• Now Gardner supports slashing unemployment insurance by two-thirds, to $200/week -- a $1,600/month cut for unemployed Coloradans.
  
• While Colorado was facing a surge in coronavirus cases, Gardner and Trump were caught “playing political games with lives” as Colorado tried to secure much-needed supplies.

PPP LOANS WENT TO CHINA & BIG BUSINESSES

• CPR reported that the data on the number of jobs impacted by the Paycheck Protection Program “don’t necessarily show what they appear to at first glance.”
  
• Gardner pushed the Trump Administration to amend the program intended for small businesses to allow big corporate chains and franchises to receive the loans, while many mom-and-pop businesses were left out.
  
• Millions of dollars from the PPP program flowed to America’s biggest economic rival, China, while leaving out many small Colorado businesses. 

BLM MOVE “DISAPPOINTING”

• The BLM’s relocation to Grand Junction was met with disappointment among community leaders and concerns the city was left with nothing more than “a figurehead headquarters” with far fewer jobs than promised.
  
• Gardner refuses to oppose the nomination of William Perry Pendley to lead the Bureau of Land Management, despite Pendley opposing public lands and wildlife protections and writing that the “Founding Fathers intended all lands owned by the federal government to be sold.”
  
• Gardner has touted the BLM’s move to Grand Junction on the campaign trail, but even The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel has come out against Trump’s pick to head the agency.

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