Fight Back Colorado Targets Aurora Republican

Cindy Acree

A pro-gay super PAC in Colorado has announced its next target: Aurora Republican state representative Cindy Acree.

Fight Back Colorado was created to unseat state legislators who helped kill a civil unions bill in a dramatic procedural battle on the second-to-last day of the regular session. In a mailer scheduled to reach households in Acree's District 40 on October 2, the group alleges that Acree is one of Colorado's most extreme Republicans. Acree did vote against civil unions in the House Finance Committee, but the mailer doesn't mention that specific vote.

Instead, the mailer cites Acree's support of legislation that would ban all abortions in Colorado — even in cases of rape or incest. That's a reference to Acree's support of House Bill 1130, which would not only outlaw abortions, but also criminalize doctors who performed them by charging them with a "violent offense against fetuses."

According to a VoteSmart profile, Acree also voted to remove background checks for gun owners, repeal the Affordable Care Act, and to adapt voter identification requirements to exclude a certified copy of a birth certificate, naturalization document, or government-issued pay stub as acceptable forms of ID at the polls.

"We are going after Rep. Acree for her 'no' vote on civil unions," said Fight Back Colorado treasurer Roger Sherman on the group's website. "The day she used her power as an elected official to make sure families like mine would be treated unfairly is the day she set herself up to become a target."

Earlier this month, Fight Back Colorado announced its first target in Robert Ramirez, a Jefferson County Republican who didn't vote on civil unions but who sits in a district thought to be key to regaining Democratic control of the State House of Representatives.

Fight Back Colorado formed in June, funded in large part by gay, Denver-based philanthropist Tim Gill. It was modeled after Fight Back New York, also funded in part by Gill, which successfully removed anti-equality legislators to secure the first Republican-led legislative approval of marriage equality in 2011. The group says it plans to target one or two additional lawmakers before the November election.