Rick Klein is the Senior Washington Editor for ABC News' for "World News with Diane Sawyer." He appears on "World News Political Insights," contributes political stories to all ABC News broadcasts and platforms and wrote The Note (from 2007-2010), a daily political blog and tip sheet that The New Yorker magazine "the most influential morning tip sheet in Washington."
Reading his bio you would think that he would know what he was talking about; that he would, at least, get the basic facts of the article correct. In the article about Ryan Frazier the first few sentences show that he hasn't proofed his work, and that he is making assumptions rather than presenting researched facts.
House candidate Ryan Frazier – one of several black Republicans who are running for seats in Congress this year – said today that the GOP can win support in African-American communities if candidates begin by simply asking for votes.
“Show up. Engage. We know where to find folks,” Frazier, who is running against Rep. Earl Perlmutter, D-Colo., in a traditionally conservative seat in Colorado.
The first thing is that Ryan Frazier's opponent's name is ED Perlmutter, not EARL Perlmutter. OK, that's an uncaught typo. It happens. It's not major. What is a important is the following clause that Frazier and Perlmutter are running "in a traditionally conservative seat in Colorado."
Not so. This seat was drawn up by a judge and designed to be as Party neutral as possible. Redistricting issues were all over the papers a few years ago. In 2003, for instance, the Democratic members of the Texas state House publicly left and went to Oklahoma to protest the way Texas was being redistricted. Rick Klein, the political expert for ABC News should have known this.
Regarding CO-7, the district in question, a quick search in the NYTimes resulted in this:
Leveled Colorado District Creates an Election Lab
New York Times
Aug. 2, 2006 — The remarkable thing about Colorado’s Seventh Congressional District, where Republicans hold a seat that Democrats are desperate to win this year, is that the fix isn’t in.
Unlike the vast majority of House districts around the country, this one, encompassing a thriving collection of Denver suburbs, was not gerrymandered to guarantee victory to one party. Quite the opposite. It is a freak of modern political nature, purposefully drawn to be balanced between the parties and provide a genuine test of the ideals and abilities of the opposing candidates.
Here's another quote, this time from Real Clear Politics:
The Denver suburbs stretch out across miles of flatland east of the city. In 2002, a Democratic judge selected the Democrats’ map after the legislature deadlocked. This map placed the newly-created 7th District in the Denver inner suburbs, and drew it to slightly favor Democrats. But Republican Bob Beauprez nevertheless narrowly won the district over a flawed Democratic candidate. Republicans tried to redraw the lines when they took control of the legislature in 2002, but the state Supreme Court found the new lines unconstitutional.
CO-7 is not, by any stretch of the imagination "a traditionally conservative seat." The first election in this newly created Congressional District went to Republican Beauprez who won a squeaker (47-47). In 2004 Beauprez won again 55-43 and in 2006 and 2008 Democrat Ed Permutter won by ever expanding margins 55-42 and 63-37.
I leave you with this question? How accurate is what you read in the MSM? Why do independent bloggers catch the professionals in such blatant mistakes? Do amateur boxers have a chance in hell against quality professionals? Hell no? How about in baseball, or basketball?
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