Posted: 07/09/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
     Eight months after the 2010 midterm elections, Colorado is once again a targeted swing state by so-called super PACs.
Crossroads GPS, an independent conservative advocacy group started by Karl Rove, announced Friday that it has launched $291,190 in TV and Internet ads here for the next two weeks.
     Nationally, the organization will spend about $7 million in the two-week span, with ads also airing in North Carolina, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada and Virginia.
     "It's a taste of things to come," said Eric Sondermann, a local independent political analyst. "These super PACs are going to be much more the norm than the exception between now and the 2012 election."
     Officially known as independent expenditure-only committees, super PACs represent spending by individuals, corporations or unions advocating for or against candidates. However, expenditures cannot be in direct cooperation with a candidate or political party.
     Sondermann said the groups' presence in Colorado speaks to the pivotal role the state will play in the 2012 election.
     In 2010, Colorado was the No. 1 state in attracting outside money as PACs pumped millions into the U.S. Senate race between GOP hopeful Ken Buck and incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet.
     "It was a new phenomenon in 2010, but the list of targeted states seems to be shrinking from then till now, which puts even more of a premium on Colorado's nine electoral votes," Sondermann said.
     This is the second phase of Crossroads' summer-long, $20 million nationwide effort attacking Democrats and President Barack Obama on government spending and the national debt.
     "After the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, it allowed corporations and unions to use Treasury dollars to make independent expenditures and electioneering communications," said Mary Brandenberger, a Federal Election Commission spokeswoman.
     Last month, Crossroads churned out its first phase of summer funds, which was $5 million in ads — spanning 10 states, including Colorado — that went after Obama's record on the economy.
     In response, Priorities USA, a pro-Democratic group started by former Obama staffers Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, began a multistate advertising campaign "to inform voters about the source of the Rove ads and the truth about the Republican economic record."
     "Republicans are playing a familiar game: When the facts aren't behind them, they simply ignore the truth," said Rick Palacio, the Democratic Party state chairman, about the latest ad campaign by Crossroads.
     "Karl Rove is afraid that when the American people see a president working for them, Republican political fortunes suffer, so he and his allies will do whatever they can to undermine the president."
     Ryan Call, the GOP's state chairman, said he doesn't expect these outside groups to supplant the traditional roles of candidates and political parties.
     "Reminding Colorado voters about Obama's failed leadership on the economy is certainly a role that some of these outside groups will play," Call said.