Bob Schaffer

The Fourth of July is about fireworks, barbecuing, parades and -- of course -- politicking.

After the jump, check out where Colorado candidates for U.S. Senate and Congress will be on America's birthday.

With energy and the environment emerging as hot button topics this election year, two environment-focused advocacy groups are spending heavily in competitive House and Senate races in Colorado.

The League of Conservation Voters is coming out strongly for Democrat Mark Udall in his run for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Loveland). The organization has sunk more than $565,000 into two television advertisements slamming Udall’s Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer.

Earlier this week, Defenders of Wildlife PAC began airing two television advertisements targeting U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, who is engaged in a competitive race with Democrat Betsy Markey. The organization has purchased about $200,000 in television airtime and spent about $12,000 to produce the ads.

A new Democrat-funded poll out today shows Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Udall leading former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer in the race for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard.

The poll, conducted by Garin-Hart-Yang Research for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, shows Udall leading Schaffer by a 46 percent to 37 percent margin. In a generic ballot test, Colorado voters say they would vote for a Democrat by a 42 percent to 36 percent margin. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

The seat is widely seen as one of the most competitive this fall. While Republicans have been accusing Udall of being too liberal for the state, Democrats have been painting Schaffer as an extreme conservative and an unethical politician, hammering him for his alleged connections to jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Scott Shires, a GOP activist and resident of Aurora, appeared in U.S. District Court earlier today and has been sentenced to a year's probation and fined $3,450, the Rocky Mountain News is reporting.

The case is drawing attention due to Shires' close connections with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer. Shires, known as an activist for the Republican Party, has worked to get Republicans elected to the legislature for years and ran for the state house himself in 2000. In 2004 he volunteered on Schaffer's senate campaign, and in 2006 was hired by Schaffer's state Board of Education to handle campaign finance filings.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall now holds a nine-point lead over his Republican opponent Bob Schaffer, according to a Rasmussen Reports telephone survey. This gain marks the second three-point increase in Udall's lead over Schaffer in the three polls Rasmussen Reports has conducted on the race.

Udall and Schaffer are competing to replace Republican Sen. Wayne Allard, who is retiring this year after two terms in the senate.

Colorado U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer is emerging as a likely beneficiary of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee founded by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that launched this week.

DeMint, who said this week that the fund was designed to benefit Republican candidates who adhered to a down-the-line conservative philosophy, was friends with Schaffer when the two occupied seats in the U.S. House, Schaffer campaign manager Dick Wadhams noted.

Wesley Denton, a spokesman for the Senate Conservatives Fund, tells PolitickerCO.com that in the next several weeks, the organization would be making decisions about which candidates it would be supporting. But he acknowledged that Schaffer was a contender. “I certainly think he’s under consideration,” Denton said.

In today's Inside Edge, a would-be king takes a fling at the real king of the right wing in Colorado... and he misses. He finds out soon enough that maybe it's better not to throw rocks at someone with better aim and a better arm.  

In today's Inside Edge, Wally takes a look at a multi-part series penned by Rossputin, the fiscally conservative blogger from Denver.  Also known as Ross Kaminsky, Rossputin takes issue with the Denver Post's stories on Bob Schaffer in two parts of a promised eight part series.  And yes eight parts is a little long. We hope that Rossputin isn't trying to over-compensate for something...like being paid .10 cents per word. Shame on you.     

The enemies list that the Clintons keep, and never trim, gets longer according to several NY Times outlets. So in today's Inside Edge Wally takes a look at what a Colorado enemies list might look like.

A Denver Post piece today dovetails nicely with yesterday's Washington Times piece on how the Democrats won the West. So in today's Inside Edge, Wally takes a look at the upside Colorado brings to Obama and the potential downside Obama brings to the Democrats.