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Polis Ads Don't Tell Complete Story

Vote08: Facts Or Fiction Checks Two Recent Commercials

Two commercials from Democratic congressional candidate Jared Polis paint him as a man of the people who will stand up to special interests.

But CALL7 Investigators' Vote08: Facts or Fiction found the facts of Polis’ campaign do not exactly match up with the rhetoric in his commercials.

"How can we reform health care when the politicians won't stand up to the lobbyists? It will take a different kind of congressman -- Jared Polis,” says one Polis ad.

However, Polis took at least $10,000 from members of large lobbying firms or people who identified themselves as lobbyists, Federal Election Commission records show.

Another ad says: "Jared Polis will do things differently; he'll stand up to the oil companies and have the independence to say no to special interest and yes to renewable energy."

But Polis accepted more than $14,000 from individuals who either work for oil and gas interests or own the companies, according to Opensecrets.org, a non-partisan campaign watchdog group.

“It's certainly a problem if you're taking money from lobbyists and lobby groups," said University of Colorado professor Jerry Hauser, who studies political ads, about the apparent contradictions in the commercial.

Polis also touts his independence by saying he will not accept Political Action Committee money, which is money from committees formed by special-interest groups to influence elected officials.

"The only candidate that doesn't take special interest PAC money,” the ad says.

That claim is true. Not only does Polis not accept special-interest PAC money but he returned a $3,000 check from the Roche Inc., a large drug company, Federal Election Commission records show.

Polis opponents point out that Polis, a wealthy businessman, can afford to forgo PAC money because he has contributed more than $600,000 to his own campaign. Recent FEC filings also show that he contributed another $2.6 million to his campaign at the end of May.

Polis' campaign manager says the money from lobbyists and oil interests represent a very small amount of the money he raised and those contributions will not affect the candidate’s decisions.

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