A poll by the Jeff Crank campaign uses true, but uncomfortable, facts about his opponents.Crank is trying to unseat Doug Lamborn in the 5th Congressional District and also faces challenger Bentley Rayburn in the Aug. 12 Republican primary election.The poll is being done via telephone to every Republican who has an absentee ballot or a history of voting in the primary – tens of thousands of voters, in other words, said Crank campaign operative Alan Philp.The poll is for “data collection” and “to get our message out,” Philp said, adding the week-long poll’s results might be released later this week.”We want to remind voters why Jeff is the strongest candidate and would be the most effective conservative voice in Washington,” he said.In response to accusations that the poll is an example of negative campaigning, Philp said, “It is accurate, factual information. There are differences between the candidates, and obviously we will point them out. We are focusing on the facts. We aren’t making stuff up.”Pollsters ask voters who they plan to vote for. Depending on which candidate is selected, pollsters read messages to the voter. Here’s a sampling of what they’re told:· For three years, to win election, Doug Lamborn claimed he never supported a tax increase. In 1982, when running for the Kansas Legislature, he said he would support taxes on oil and gas drilling and vehicles.Lamborn has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to send unwanted junk mail to voters. His office mail budget is one of the highest among members of Congress. Lamborn also spent tens of thousands of special interest dollars and taxpayer dollars on travel while serving in Congress. His are the highest among the Colorado delegation.· Bentley Rayburn has never paid taxes on a house in Colorado, and Rayburn did not pay Colorado income taxes until after he moved to Colorado and registered to vote in 2006.Rayburn moved to Colorado in 2006 just so he could run for office. He did not register to vote as a Republican in Colorado until two weeks before announcing his bid for Congress.The pollster then notes that Crank, a lifelong Colorado resident, wants to cut Washington spending by 20 percent in 10 years. He’s vowed not to use tax money for mailed messages to constituents, not to take travel junkets and not to advocate for earmarks, commonly called pork-barrel spending.Lamborn’s campaign spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen issued a statement saying Lamborn hasn’t voted for or supported a tax increase in his 13.5 years in public office, most of it in the state Legislature, and that he authored the largest tax cut in Colorado history.”For someone to state or imply that I have ever voted for a tax increase is totally false,” Lamborn said in a release. The poll, however, doesn’t say Lamborn voted for a tax increase, but rather that he supported several, contrary to his campaign literature that states he never “supported” a tax increase.Mortensen defended Lamborn’s franked mail to constituents saying that staying in touch with voters is “incredibly important” and one of his “highest priorities.”As for travel, Lamborn said his Middle East trip last August was sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation. “The Middle East is a critical part of so many things affecting our country, including energy, the military, and the war in Iraq. Going to Israel is one way of getting an important perspective on all those issues,” he said in the statement.As for Rayburn, his campaign manager Michael Hesse acknowledged the statements are true.”He currently rents a home while waiting to buy or build a home in the local area after the pace of the Congressional race subsides,” Hesse wrote in an e-mail. “He paid property taxes on land he owned in Fremont County back in the late  ’70s through mid-’80s.”Hesse noted Rayburn didn’t pay Colorado property taxes on a home because he served in the military for 31 years, retiring in early 2006 as a major general.Nor did Rayburn pay Colorado income taxes. “He did not pay income taxes in Colorado while serving in the U.S. military and not stationed in Colorado,” Hesse said. “His memory is vague as to whether he paid state taxes to Colorado while a cadet at the United States Air Force Academy in the early  ’70s.”Hesse added that Rayburn has always planned to retire here.While Rayburn has been a registered Republican since he became qualified to vote, he changed his voter registration to Colorado in April 2006 when he retired, just weeks before he announced his candidacy for Congress.Still at itThe fur keeps flying in the contest for the Republican nomination to represent State House District 15. That’s the race between tax-cut advocate Douglas Bruce, appointed to the seat in January, and challenger Mark Waller, an Air Force veteran and political newcomer.The latest row started Wednesday, when Bruce sent a complaint to the Colorado secretary of state alleging Waller violated campaign finance laws. The complaint concerns a letter businessman Stephen Schuck sent on his corporate letterhead asking for donations to Waller’s campaign. That should count as a campaign contribution because it involved staff time, stationery, postage and use of a mailing list, Bruce said. But Waller’s latest campaign finance report doesn’t disclose the contribution.Waller’s not sure it was a violation, his campaign consultant, Sara Jack, said. But he’s already paid back the Schuck Corp. for any cost involved in sending the 201 letters. “There was no intent on Mark’s behalf to skirt the law,” she said.Jack says the Waller campaign has issued a check to cover the costs – less than $100, but she wasn’t sure of the amount.Reimbursing the company doesn’t get Waller off the hook, Bruce said. State law bans any corporate contribution to a candidate’s campaign, even if the Schuck Corporation’s contribution could be viewed as a loan, Bruce said.The Secretary of the State’s Office is in touch with Bruce about his complaint but hasn’t started an investigation, said spokesman Richard Coolidge.Bruce argues election authorities should come down hard. “I ask that a hearing be scheduled on this complaint, that the Waller campaign be ordered to turn over to the state forthwith any profits or contributions resulting from this illegal activity, and that the maximum penalties provided by law be imposed on each party to this conspiracy,” Bruce said in his complaint letter.Send items to pam.zubeck@gazettedev.gazette.com

Stubbs the horse resides at the Air Force Academy Equestrian Center. At 46 he is the oldest horse at the stables and possibly anywhere for that matter. Stubbs started his military career in 1968 while he was a working horse at Fort Carson. Photo by BRYAN OLLER, THE GAZETTE