Independent group has sent half a dozen mailers to addresses in Steamboat Springs, some supporting Democratic Rep. Meghan Lukens, and others criticizing her opponent, Republican Nathan Butler.
As ballots start showing up in mailboxes across Colorado House District 26, nearly $80,000 worth of political fliers have been landing alongside them, with one group sending some addresses in Steamboat Springs at least six different mailers in the last week.
An independent expenditure committee called Colorado Way Forward has spent more than $100,000 in the Northwest Colorado house race according to campaign finance records, either supporting Democratic Rep. Meghan Lukens or opposing her Republican opponent, Nathan Butler. The group has spent more than $1 million on Colorado House races this election cycle, records show.
The mailers either tout Lukens’ record on education, housing or preserving rural character, or lean into Butler — hitting him on issues like abortion access, election integrity and his presence in Washington D.C. on Jan 6, 2021. In his closing statement at a Steamboat Pilot & Today election forum last week, Butler condemned the mailers, calling them “blatant, bald-faced lies.”
One mailer that started arriving this week shows a photo of Butler with his face obscured by a large red “Make America Great Again” hat made famous by former President Donald Trump — “More MAGA than man,” the tagline reads.
“It’s comical to a point,” Butler said in an interview with The Yampa Valley Bugle on Tuesday, adding that he doesn’t actually own a MAGA hat. “I’m not some kind of uber Trump guy — he has his problems — I just think he is the better candidate of what we are offered.”
Another mailer refers to Butler as “Moebert,” which is explained in parentheses to mean “male Lauren Boebert.”
“I think there is this real big push to paint a brush across all Republicans as this monolith of Trump and Lauren Boebert because they see people as viewing them negatively,” Butler said. “If someone has legitimately bad opinions, it is okay to call those things out. But we don’t have to create a caricature to push that narrative.”
The political spending is not new to House District 26, which was seen as one of the closest in the state following Colorado’s redistricting process. The 2022 matchup for the seat also saw well over $100,000 in political spending from outside groups. Lukens won the district, which includes Routt, Moffat, Rio Blanco and most of Eagle counties, by more than seven percentage points in 2022.
Independent expenditure committees like Colorado Way Forward are not allowed to coordinate with candidates. Lukens said she has sent one mailer about herself via her campaign, but the rest of them she has nothing to do with.
“I can’t control what dark money groups have to say,” Lukens said in an interview Tuesday. “With the money that I have raised for my campaign, I am proud of running a positive campaign about myself and working to talk to voters about what I hope to do for them if reelected.”
Butler says he was interviewed by FBI as witness of Jan. 6
Caption: Colorado House District 26 candidates Republican Nathan Butler, left, and Democratic Rep. Meghan Lukens speak during an election forum hosted by Steamboat Pilot & Today on Oct. 10. (Dylan Anderson/The Yampa Valley Bugle)
Each of the negative mailers about Butler mention his presence at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 and attempt to portray him as an “election denier,” a charge he “vehemently” rejects.
“There were allegations of fraud, and while I did think they needed to be looked into, that’s a normal thing,” Butler said. “We have a duty to look into them, and move on.”
Butler confirmed he did attend Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 and did march to the Capitol, but that he did not travel to Washington specifically to see the speech. Butler said he was in town to attend a “prayer for America” rally the day before.
“I did attend the rally because there was no reason not to,” Butler said about Trump’s speech on Jan. 6. “I marched to the Capitol. I didn’t see anything violent; I didn’t see so much as a shove. When the curfew went out, I left.”
Butler said he got close to the steps of the U.S. Capitol building, but that he did not pass any police barricades and did not enter the building. He said he was at the bottom of the Capitol steps for about an hour where people were singing songs and chanting “U-S-A.” Butler said he did not witness the violence that he later saw on television when he returned to his hotel room.
Since Jan. 6, Butler said he has talked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation three separate times about what he saw. He also gave his account of the experience to Steamboat Pilot for an article published Jan. 8, 2021.
“I talked to them, once when I reached out to them to talk and twice when they called me to talk,” Butler said, referring to his conversations with the FBI. “I told them everything I saw to the best of my ability, you know, to try to help them catch anybody that did anything wrong.”
“Anyone who committed any act of violence or aggression, especially against a police officer should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Butler continued. “But I’ve maintained that there were also hundreds of thousands of people that were there that did absolutely nothing wrong, that just walked to the Capitol, stood there and then left. I can’t speak about the people that went into the building.”
Lukens well ahead in campaign contributions
Campaign finance reports, the latest of which were submitted on Tuesday, shows that Lukens is far ahead of Butler in contributions, with more than $165,000 total. Reports show Lukens has spent nearly $51,000 of that so far.
“I am very proud of the large amount of donations, and when I say large amount of donations, I mean the quantity of donations from different people,” Lukens said. “I believe that shows people are interested in my race and interested in supporting me and believe that my vision for what I hope to do for the people of House District 26 is the vision that these folks align with.”
Campaign finance data shows Butler has raised about $17,500 as of the Oct. 15 report. He has spent nearly $12,000 of that.
Abortion access, health insurance and throwing elbows
The mailers from Colorado Way Forward seek to hit Butler on abortion access as well, saying he wants to “criminalize” and “ban” abortion. Butler said he has no desire to “make waves” on the issue, though he wants to close what he believes is an “at-birth loophole” in Colorado’s abortion law.
“I’m not coming after anyone. I don’t plan on pushing any kind of abortion ban of any kind, in part because the votes are not there,” Butler said. “It’s the bogeyman in the closet that they want to make people afraid of in order to get people to vote for them and I think that’s wrong.”
Another claim by the mailer is that Butler would allow insurers to charge people on the Western Slope more than they pay in other parts of the state. This is a reference to Butler signing the Libertarian Pledge, which includes a provision about deregulating the medical marketplace.
“That’s trying to make it more affordable, not allowing insurance companies to jack up the prices,” Butler said.
Lastly, each mailer makes a reference to Butler’s campaign website, saying his is focused on “bickering not solutions.” The reference is to a line on his website that says HD26 needs a representative that will “metaphorically throw elbows for their constituents.”
Butler says he wants to do the opposite of what the mailer argues, adding that he would push to require 50% support from the opposition party for a bill to be considered bipartisan.
“I’m focusing on solutions,” Butler said. “[The mailers] tend to be focused on the past and focusing on the sins of the past, meanwhile, I just want to focus on our future.”
Top Photo Caption: Six mailers from Colorado Way Forward have been sent to addresses in Steamboat Springs in the last week. (Dylan Anderson/The Yampa Valley Bugle)