Ben Ray and LeviDo you recall that a few days ago I offered to bet that Stenchy Hoyer and Ben Ray Luján were lying when they went on TV and made up some cock'n'bull story that the only way the Democrats could beat Mike Coffman in his suburban Denver district was by nominating a corrupt, right-wing Democrat Stenchy and Ben Ray were supporting, Jason Snow. No one took me up on my bet. But I would have won. In fact the exact opposite was true-- that only Levi Tillemann was the sure winner. After Stenchys and Ben Ray's lie, Tillemann's campaign contacted the same polling firm they used, PPP, and asked them to do the poll over, this time so it could be used publicly. Hoyer and Luján claimed the poll showed "very clearly" that Tillemann could not beat Coffman.
“His claims didn’t resonate with what we were seeing in the district. It felt like a convenient, but dishonest, excuse for their ongoing interference in our primary” said Tillemann. Of note, PPP is the same polling agency used by Tillemann’s opponent for his much touted head-to-head poll against Coffman. Tillemann went a step further, promising that if the poll showed he did not have a credible path to defeating Coffman in the general election, for the good of the country and the Democratic Party, Tillemann would immediately withdraw from the race.Tillemann will not be withdrawing.The poll surveyed 606 likely voters on two rounds of questions about head-to-head matchups between both Democratic challengers and Mike Coffman. First the poll questioned respondents offering no information apart from party affiliation and the candidates’ names. In that round, both Tillemann and his opponent are statistically tied with Coffman; this is attributable to low name recognition and biographical knowledge regarding the Democratic contenders. The poll then offered positive biographical details about both Levi Tillemann (Obama appointee, clean-energy entrepreneur, and language fluency) and his opponent (Army veteran, father, and attorney). With biographical information on both Tillemann and his Democratic opponent, Tillemann opened up a significant lead (43%/38%) against Coffman. This result represents the only head-to-head matchup with Coffman outside the poll’s ±4% statistical margin of error.“These are great results and I’m not surprised” said Tillemann. “As we’ve knocked on thousands of doors across the district, it’s become clear that most voters are still learning about me and my primary opponent. What they do know is that they’re ready for a change. Moreover, when people hear about my background they see a candidate who has invested in our diverse communities and future, and is profoundly different from Mike Coffman. That contrast is much less clear for my primary opponent.”While the poll answered important questions regarding general election viability for both Democratic candidates, it also raised questions regarding the integrity of Jason Crow and his patrons in Washington, DC. “The Crow team either polled on Levi and discovered that he posed a credible threat to Coffman in the general election, then chose to lie about it. Or they didn’t poll on him, pretended they had, and chose to lie about it. This is part of a disturbing pattern of deception. Crow claims he’s not accepting corporate PAC money (he does, funneled through special interest PACs); he claimed he wasn’t being helped by the DCCC (he was); and he claimed he came from a family of bricklayers (his father owns a wealth managerment firm). Here, once again, Mr. Crow and his party bosses are lying to the voters of the 6th Congressional District” said Joe Erlich, a senior staffer at Levi for Colorado. “It’s deeply troubling.”Tillemann added, “integrity used to be considered an asset in pursuit of public office, and getting caught in a bald-faced lie was often enough to end a career. Donald Trump has removed all shame from GOP politicians. We worry Mr. Crow and the DCCC may have contracted that same virus. They seem to believe lying is OK so long as they can get away with it. As Democrats, we must reject this race to the bottom.”Jason Crow and his allies in the DCCC have, once again, been caught red handed. They are lying to the voters of Colorado and undermining progressive candidates and ideals across the country. It’s divisive and will hurt our chances against Coffman in November. It goes against everything we as Democrats need to be fighting for right now. Because of this, Crow is damaged goods. He should withdraw from the race and the DCCC should stop their meddling in the Democratic Primaries nationally.The DCCC has justified their interference arguing that it will bring Democrats a payday in November. This poll makes it clear Democrats don’t need to compromise their values for that payday. “We want something more,” said Tillemann. “We want a payday for truth, a payday for justice and a payday for democracy.”
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