Post article noted Beauprez's interest in 2010 governor's race, but omitted controversial missteps in 2006 contest

Summary: The Denver Post reported on its PoliticsWest website that failed 2006 gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez (R) is "considering running against Gov. Bill Ritter in 2010." But the article did not mention any of the miscues in Beauprez's previous campaign against Ritter, such as Beauprez's false claim that "70 percent" of African-American pregnancies "end in abortion."

In an article published May 13 on its PoliticsWest website, The Denver Post reported that failed Republican 2006 gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez is "considering running against Gov. Bill Ritter in 2010." The article by Karen Crummy noted that "Beauprez lost to Ritter in the 2006 election by more than 15 percentage points" and reported that Beauprez "declined to discuss ... why he thought the second time around might be more successful." But despite the Post's previous reporting, Crummy's article did not mention any of Beauprez's controversial missteps, including inaccurate comments he made regarding the percentage of African-American pregnancies that end in abortion and his selection as running mate of Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland, who once linked gay marriage to incest, polygamy, and marriage involving 11-year-olds. The Post also failed to report that Beauprez's campaign ran inaccurate attack ads accusing Ritter of helping criminal aliens "avoid deportation."

From Karen Crummy's article "If at first you don't succeed ... Bob Beauprez version," published May 13 on The Denver Post's PoliticsWest website:

Republican Bob Beauprez says he still thinks about being governor of Colorado.

So much so, he's considering running against Gov. Bill Ritter in 2010. "There are only a couple jobs that pique my interest and this is one," Beauprez said, not disclosing what the other might be.

"I'm definitely not saying no (to running). My interest in the job was not a fleeting fancy." The former congressman said he is planning to "sit back and observe" events throughout this year, and determine next year whether he should launch a second gubernatorial bid.

Beauprez lost to Ritter in the 2006 election by more than 15 percentage points. He declined to discuss what he would have done differently than Ritter as governor, or why he thought the second time around might be more successful.

Similar to its May 13 article, the Post on December 20, 2006, reported that Beauprez "acknowledged missteps" during his campaign, but it failed to mention controversies over his statement that "70 percent" of African-American pregnancies "end in abortion" and his selection of Rowland as his running mate, as Colorado Media Matters has noted.

As the Post reported on August 15, 2006, "within hours" of her selection, "Rowland was embroiled in controversy." The article explained, "Earlier this year during a taped discussion on gay marriage, she asked: 'Do we allow a man to marry a sheep? I mean at some point, you have to draw the line.' " On the same day, the Rocky Mountain News similarly reported, "Rowland came under fire Monday for comments she made on the Colorado State of Mind program last spring, comparing homosexuality to 'bestiality, polygamy and incest.' "

Beauprez's campaign generated further controversy after he falsely claimed that "70 percent" of African-American pregnancies "end in abortion." He made the comment during the August 28, 2006, broadcast of Colorado Matters on Colorado Public Radio affiliate KCFR. As Colorado Media Matters noted, according to the then-latest figures from the November 2005 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 33 percent of pregnancies among African-American women that did not end in miscarriages or stillbirths -- less than half of what Beauprez claimed -- ended in "legal induced abortions."

Under pressure from elected officials and women's health care and rights organizations, Beauprez apologized for his remarks on August 29, 2006, as the Post reported two days later:

[Beauprez's] comment sparked a fury among black religious and political leaders that was fanned after grassroots liberal groups called attention to the statement.

"I'm offended, and I'm sure others will be as well," said the Rev. Reginald Holmes, pastor of New Covenant Christian Church in Denver and former head of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance.

"This is evidence of the supreme irresponsibility of the man," Holmes said. "He's a complete irresponsible buffoon. If he can prove those statistics, then I will apologize publicly."

Beauprez did not cite the source of the statistic. On Wednesday, his campaign couldn't either.

Post-election coverage in the Post and other media outlets also pointed to Beauprez's abortion comment and his selection of Rowland as important factors in his loss. According to a November 8, 2006, Post article, "When Bob Beauprez announced his run for governor in January, politicos on both sides of the aisle believed the campaign veteran could win handily. But over the past few months, it became clear they were wrong." The article noted that Beauprez's "missteps" included, among other problems, having "to apologize for embarrassing public statements by Beauprez and running mate Janet Rowland":

Beauprez told a radio station in August that 70 percent of black pregnancies end in abortion.

And the day Rowland was announced as Beauprez's running mate, it was learned that she once asked during a discussion on gay marriage: "Do we allow a man to marry a sheep? I mean at some point you have to draw the line."

In a November 9, 2006, article ("Perfect storm of goofs damaged Beauprez's run"), also by Crummy, the Post reported, "Often there is a moment in time that, viewed in retrospect, reveals where things went wrong. In the case of Bob Beauprez's gubernatorial bid, however, the moments were legion." The Post further noted, "While his Democratic opponent, Bill Ritter, ran a consistently good campaign, most of Beauprez's wounds were self-inflicted, say political watchers, and raised questions about Beauprez's ability to lead." As examples of the Beauprez campaign's "self-inflicted" wounds, Crummy reported:

He [Beauprez] blew a golden opportunity to pick a moderate running mate in August, and instead tapped Janet Rowland who once asked during a discussion of gay marriage: 'Do we allow a man to marry a sheep?' Two weeks later he contended that black women get abortions at the 'appalling' rate of up to 70 percent.

The article concluded with a passage noting that a series of television ads targeting Ritter's record when he was Denver district attorney backfired on Beauprez's campaign after the FBI investigated whether the ads used information obtained illegally:

Toward the end of the campaign, just as it appeared Beauprez had found a issue that might politically damage Ritter, it exploded in his face. After Beauprez ran television ads showing that Ritter's office had plea-bargained with illegal and legal immigrants, the FBI launched an investigation into whether some of the information in the ads was obtained illegally.

On September 29, 2006, Beauprez released an ad accusing Ritter of helping criminal aliens "avoid deportation" when he was DA. The ad cited the cases of five immigrants -- four legal and one illegal -- charged with felonies who were permitted to plea bargain to the lesser Class 5 felony of trespassing on agricultural land. A subsequent Beauprez campaign ad, released on October 10, 2006, featured the case of an illegal immigrant, Carlos Estrada Medina, who reportedly was arrested in Denver in 2001 under the alias Walter Noel Ramo for heroin possession and intent to distribute, but was allowed by the DA's office under Ritter to plead guilty to agricultural trespass in January 2002. According to the ad, authorities later arrested Ramo in California on several charges, including sexual abuse of a minor.

Shortly after the later ad aired, Ritter's campaign urged the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to determine whether Beauprez's campaign illegally accessed the National Crime Information Center database in order to verify that Medina and Ramo were names for the same person. The CBI and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in October 2006 identified U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis as the person who allegedly accessed the database to obtain the information. On October 25, 2007, federal authorities charged Voorhis with three misdemeanor counts of misusing his access.

As Colorado Media Matters pointed out, Colorado media figures -- including Beauprez -- made numerous false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims related to the case. Voorhis was acquitted of a criminal violation on April 9.

Furthermore, while the ads accused Ritter of offering plea bargains that helped illegal immigrants avoid deportation, U.S. law states that aliens in the country illegally are subject to deportation by federal officials regardless of any state or local pleas to which they agree, as Colorado Media Matters has noted repeatedly. Colorado Media Matters has further noted (here and here) that at the time the ads aired, the Denver district attorney's office stated that prosecutors could not establish that Ramo was in fact a "heroin dealer."

—E.B.