Lamborn Gains Club For Growth Endorsement, Loses Vets Organization

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs) on Tuesday was again endorsed by the Club for Growth.

The national anti-tax organization lauded Lamborn for "voting against every Democratic tax hike and sustaining every Bush veto on spending bills." Lamborn was also one of 16 Congressmen to receive a perfect score on the Club for Growth's 2007 "RePORK Card," as he supported all 50 amendments the organization labeled to be "anti-pork."

“In 2006, Rep. Lamborn promised to fight against wasteful spending and tax increases, and he has lived up to his word even when many Republicans chose to side with the Democrats,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey in a statement. “Doug Lamborn had one of the most pro-growth records last year in Congress. He has proven himself to be an unwavering defender of taxpayers and the kind of representative Colorado Republicans can be proud of.”

Lamborn's manager, Robin Coran, said early Tuesday afternoon that she welcomed the endorsement, although she hadn't heard about it before a reporter asked her.

The Club for Growth had endorsed Lamborn in the 2006 CD-5 race and paid for controversial ads in that campaign against two of Lamborn's opponents. 

Amber O'Connor, deputy campaign manager for CD-5 GOP candidate Jeff Crank (one of the '06 CD-5 candidates targeted by the Club for Growth ads), said the timing of the endorsement "shows the dire straits of Lamborn’s campaign."

"It shows that Lamborn is getting a little bit desparate and needs to pull this endorsement early, and it kind of shows the kind of campaign that Lamborn is going to run again," O'Connor said.

"If you remember, this group was given one of the largest FEC fines in history," O'Connor said, referring to a $350,000 penalty the Club for Growth paid the Federal Elections Commission last fall for not registering as a political committee and failing to report its contributions and expenditures.

Also on Tuesday, the Colorado Veterans' Alliance announced that the group was withdrawing from Lamborn's Veterans' Advisory Board because of the congressman's continued support of the war in Iraq.

The Alliance, formed by Duncan last year, represents 32,000 military veterans in Colorado. 

The Veterans' Advisory Board, which includes representatives from veterans' groups such as Veterans of Foreign Wars, acts as a forum for veterans to discuss and make recommendations about issues concerning them to Lamborn, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

But, Duncan said, since joining the board last June, he's found it has "become more of a forum for attempting to prop up a failing policy than a body by which veterans and military affairs issues were raised, identified and protected."

As a critic of the Iraq War, Duncan said his voice "was not only a minority but an extreme minority" within the group. 

"And when I voiced it, I was written off," he said.

The group will formally announce its withdrawal from the advisory board at a Thursday press conference in Colorado Springs.

A Lamborn congressional spokesperson did not have an immediate comment.