Congressional candidate wins apology after accusing blogger of libel

Congressional candidate George Lilly: Campaign photoFirst Congressional District Republican candidate George Lilly on Saturday threatened legal action against a conservative blogger for a post made last month questioning Lilly's support of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer.

The blogger, Anthony Surace, a 21-year-old Metro State University student who runs RockyMountainRight.com, apologized for the post Sunday and said he would "take George Lilly at his word that he supports Bob Schaffer."

In the post, dated June 9, Surace said Lilly "is no Republican," alleging the 2004 CO-1 Constitution Party candidate wasn't sufficiently supportive of the GOP ticket this election year.

"At his public appearances at Denver County GOP events he has launched tirades against the Schaffer and McCain campaigns and has made it clear that he will not support the Republican ticket in November," Surace wrote in the post. "While it is doubtful we can win this seat, George Lilly's presence on the ticket could be disruptive enough to harm other Republican candidates running statewide."

Surace offered as evidence a YouTube video posted by Lilly's campaign of Lilly speaking at a Denver Republican Party breakfast on June 5. In the video, Lilly lauds supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and states, "Let us hope that this is the beginning of the end of the establishment."

The video claims that Schaffer manager and Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams was sitting in the front row of the breakfast during Lilly's address.

In an e-mail sent to Surace late Saturday night, Lilly wrote, "You have libeled me with your blog," stating that he's donated money to Schaffer twice and has "spoken well of him on many occasions."

"I have known Bob for close to twenty years, and I think he is an excellent person and legislator," Lilly said in the e-mail. "I recommend that you print an immediate retraction of your false allegations against me and issue an apology, or I will seek legal redress against you."

Lilly also included Surace's e-mail and phone number in the e-mail, which he forwarded to supporters.

Ironically, Surace told PolitickerCO that he had taken the blog post down earlier on Saturday, hours before Lilly e-mailed him - not out of any concern about the post's content, but rather because Surace recently read a Denver Post article that listed Lilly's GOP primary opponent, Charles Crain, as living in a homeless shelter.

In a new blog post Sunday, Surace said he would "take George Lilly at his word that he supports Bob Schaffer and donated to his campaign and apologize for any confusion over the issue."

That appears to have resolved the issue for Lilly.

"I consider that a retraction even though (Surace) does not," Lilly said in an e-mail to PolitickerCO late Sunday.

But Surace is still uneasy that Lilly threatened a libel suit and sent Surace's home address to his supporters.

"I just think it's outrageous that he would try to intimidate me in this manner, to threaten a lawsuit and put my home address out to his entire e-mail list," Surace said. "It's kind of a scary thing to get a congressional candidate saying he's going to sue you."

Lilly disputed Surace's assertion that the e-mail was meant as a personal threat.

"Is employing your team to support you a threat? Is defending the truth a threat?" Lilly asked in an e-mail. "I advised him only as a courtesy so that he would be prepared to handle mail or phone calls if they came in."

"I am anti-establishment (an iconoclast if you will)," Lilly continued. "Do you think I'll run into a little opposition from the powers that be in my own party? Do you think they'll use every tactic they can to defeat me or beat me into submission? If not, then you are naieve (sic) about politics."