The Colorado Springs Gazette was as appauled as we were to see and hear such outrageous lies about Senator Herpin over the airwaves. The Gazette took Mr. Merrifield and his allies to task in their editorial. Read it below.

Editorial: Ad of lies promotes Bloomberg/Merrifield agenda

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg took offense when voters recalled one of his puppets, then-Colorado Senate President John Morse. Bloomberg thought his money could buy Colorado elections. That’s why the multibillionaire described voters in the state’s most populous county as rubes so primitive they don’t have roads.

Those who would return local influence to Bloomberg, with the election of Michael Merrifield, are spending a mountain of out-of-state cash promoting a lie that didn’t work the first time — when Bloomberg wanted to protect Morse from the recall. Deception is common in politics, but this lie involves more calculated deceit than “you can keep your doctor.”

Hoping to discredit Sen. Bernie Herpin, a popular moderate elected to replace Morse, out-of-state opponents are spending big on ads that claim Herpin arranged a junket while serving on the Colorado Springs City Council. To pay for his trip, the ad says, Herpin “called up Colorado Springs Utilities” and asked the enterprise to provide a $25,000 vacation at an expense to local ratepayers. An animated TV version, which aired before Herpin’s election in 2013, depicts him traveling in a jet.

They think District 11 residents are stupid. Here are the facts:

• Lie: Herpin called up Colorado Springs Utilities to arrange a trip. Truth: Herpin served on the board of directors for the utility. As a board member, he was asked to ride a bus crowded with other board members and community leaders to visit the city’s reservoirs and pipelines for an update on their conditions. It’s a routine trek taken so people who make decisions about water know where it originates, and how it’s transported and stored.
• Lie: Herpin flew on a plane. Truth: Herpin rode a bus. Herpin has never been supplied a plane ride by Utilities.
• Lie: Herpin’s trip cost $25,000. Truth: Herpin ate modest on-the-go meals that together cost $52. The utility spent $30 to transport him on the bus. Like others on the trip, Herpin spent one night in a Salida motel at a rate of $80. The full cost for Herpin to inspect the water assets was $162 — not $25,000.

At least half the $162 trip involved on-site education about the Southern Delivery System, a $1 billion pipeline Herpin and other board members governed. The project has been managed so superbly by Utilities staff, with oversight of board members, it is ahead of schedule at nearly $100 million less than expected.

Though he made billion-dollar decisions, Herpin received no remuneration for serving on the Utilities board.

As Herpin received $162 in food, shelter and transportation to do his job for free, Bloomberg used part of his $35 billion fortune to meddle in Colorado affairs — in part by appointing Merrifield as state director for an anti-Second Amendment crusade the former mayor will fund with $50 million this year alone. To put Merrifield in office, and further the former New York mayor’s agenda, Bloomberg supporters promote an outright lie about a legitimate, no-frills business trip. It’s unconscionable.

Merrifield — best known for wishing school-choice parents to hell — should denounce this ad and demand its removal.

Otherwise, Merrifield supports this political season’s most insulting and outrageous lie.

Read more at http://gazette.com/editorial-ad-of-lies-promotes-bloombergmerrifield-agenda/article/1538526#cy4xycHMPkQepQdC.99