OOF: Gardner’s Billionaire Allies “Mistakes Grand Canyon for Colorado” In Desperate Greenwashing Ad

Westword calls out Gardner & his allies’ numerous gaffes including “racist” mailers & JFK’s family demanding Gardner take down his closing ad, calling him a “disgrace”

Denver, CO - A new Westword report reveals that Senator Cory Gardner’s billionaire GOP megadonors used images of the Grand Canyon — which is in Arizona, not Colorado -- in a desperate ad trying to greenwash Gardner’s toxic environmental record. Westword notes that this gaffe is part of a pattern of missteps by Gardner and his allies, which also includes mailers in support of Gardner being “denounced as racist” and the family of President John F. Kennedy demanding Gardner take down a misleading ad that invokes Kennedy’s legacy without permission. Kennedy family members say they are “deeply offended” that Gardner “maligns” JFK’s legacy and are demanding that he “remove this ad now.”

The super PAC that made the egregious Grand Canyon gaffe is run by billionaire Joe Ricketts, who was among the wealthiest in America who saved billions of dollars from the GOP tax scam that Gardner played a “key role” pushing through. Ricketts returned the favor with his shady super PAC trying to greenwash Gardner’s record, but apparently Gardner’s out-of-state billionaire backer can’t tell the difference between Colorado and Arizona.

To no surprise, “neither Gardner nor his representatives have responded to requests for comment.”

Read the highlights below or the full article HERE.

Westword: Pro-Cory Gardner Ad Mistakes Grand Canyon for Colorado
By Michael Roberts | November 2, 2020

• With election day on November 3, campaign ads will finally come to an end — for this cycle, anyhow. And that's good news for U.S. Senator Cory Gardner, who's seen material pushing his candidacy denounced as racist and attacked by the family of a former president. But the funniest gaffe on his behalf — a video that mistakes one of America's most famous national parks for Colorado — may turn out to be the worst sign of all.

• Then, over the weekend, three of John F. Kennedy's family members attacked Gardner for using footage of the late leader as a way of hyping his own record on the environment. Kerry Kennedy tweeted: "How dare you @CoryGardner misuse and abuse the memory of Uncle Jack in this grossly misleading advertisement? You have supported Trump's decimation of the EPA and fueled global warming. You are a disgrace."
  
• And then there's a pro-Gardner clip financed by an organization known as ESAFund (formerly the Ending Spending Action Fund). The ad (click here) begins with the lines, "Colorado's greatest natural resources are our people. Our land." But these words are paired with an image not from the state he represents, but from Arizona. It's a little place called the Grand Canyon.
  
• The photo definitely looked like the Grand Canyon to us, but we wanted to make sure — so we reached out to Joelle Baird, spokesperson for Grand Canyon National Park. It's the Grand Canyon, all right, Baird confirms.

• Neither Gardner nor his representatives have responded to requests for comment from Westword in years, but we reached out about the ad, anyway. No response.
  

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