A year and a half before the 2024 election, opponents unloaded scathing ad campaigns aimed at the two most vulnerable Colorado House members, U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert and Yadira Caraveo.

The attacks are the latest eruption in the state in an escalating battle over congressional legislation to raise the federal government’s debt limit, with Democrats and Republicans blaming each other for pushing the nation to the brink of an unprecedented, disastrous default the Biden administration is warning could be imminent as soon as the end of the month.

Boebert, a Rifle Republican serving her second term, and Caraveo, a Thornton Democrat serving her first term, each won election in November by slim margins and have landed on the opposing parties’ target lists.

The digital ads aimed at the pair center around votes the two lawmakers cast on April 26, when the GOP-controlled House narrowly OK’d a bill to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion while slashing spending and reversing the Democrats’ policy agenda.

The bill passed 217-215 along party lines, with Boebert and fellow Republican Doug Lamborn voting in support, and the Colorado delegation’s five Democrats and Republican Ken Buck voting against it. Buck, one of four GOP votes against the measure, said he couldn’t back the bill because it didn’t cut spending aggressively enough.

While the bill has been declared dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate, Republicans led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are using it to force President Joe Biden to the bargaining table.

Democrats counter that the GOP is holding the world economy hostage by refusing to raise the government’s legal borrowing limit, as Republican lawmakers did under former President Donald Trump without demanding concessions, lifting the debt ceiling by $7 trillion during the Republican’s single term.

Biden is set to meet with congressional leaders on May 9 to discuss budget priorities but has ruled out negotiations over the debt ceiling.

In the meantime, a left-leaning group is blasting Boebert over her support for the House bill, charging that she approved budget cuts that could cost veterans their lives. Meanwhile, a right-leaning group is lashing Caraveo for blocking “common-sense solutions” to the nation’s economic woes.

The other members of Colorado’s delegation amped up the rhetoric this week, too, accusing their political foes of playing partisan games in a potentially catastrophic game of chicken.

VoteVets, a progressive political action committee devoted to electing veterans, is spending about $20,000 to target some 30,000 veterans and military families in Boebert’s 3rd Congressional District with a 30-second video released on May 2, a spokesman told Colorado Politics.

The ad opens with a clip of Boebert expressing gratitude to veterans “for the freedom we all enjoy” in a video she posted on Veteran’s Day.

“Congresswoman Boebert sure has a funny way of thanking us for our service,” the ad’s narrator says. “She just voted a 22% cut to veterans programs, cutting 30 million VA outpatient visits and firing 81,000 staff making the backlog for GI Bill and pension claims even worse. How many who survived the battlefield will die waiting because of a vote in Congress? Boebert betrayed us. Call her on it.”

The ad cites figures released by the Veterans Administration that warned the GOP bill’s cap on discretionary domestic spending – holding next year’s budget to 2022 levels and allowing just a 1% annual increase in subsequent years – will amount to drastic cuts after inflation and other growth factors are taken into account.

Republicans reject the argument, saying they’ll prioritize spending to protect veterans, but Democrats note the GOP ignored veterans’ programs while carving out exceptions for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, putting the spending at risk.

“This is just the first ad we’ve done on this issue, but it won’t be the last, so no Republican who voted to gut VA care should exhale,” Retired Major General Paul Eaton, a senior advisor to VoteVets, said in an emailed statement to Colorado Politics.

“The reason we targeted Lauren Boebert with this ad is because she’s one of the biggest hypocrites in Congress when it comes to troops and veterans and we want her constituents – especially those who served, and their families – to know what her record is.”

Boebert’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment, but in a video posted to social media last week, she attacked Biden and claimed it’s the Democrats who are threatening the country’s creditworthiness.

“The House took responsible action to ensure we did not default on our debt,” Boebert said. “It’s completely irresponsible for the president to refuse to negotiate and to sit like a king in the high castle saying that it’s his way or the highway.”

In a letter released on May 4, Lamborn, whose 5th Congressional District is brimming with military bases and veterans, said he considers the House bill “the next step in the process of debt ceiling negotiation” and called on Biden to “bring a good faith effort negotiation to the table.”

Calling the legislation “only the beginning” of an effort to “rein in government waste and spending,” Lamborn swung back at charges the Republican plan will lead to cuts in veterans’ benefits, which he maintained “are largely considered mandatory spending and this bill does not affect mandatory spending.”

Added Lamborn: “In fact, the bill only lists a topline number for the entire federal budget. The talks of cuts to staff and facilities are hypothetical cases being proposed by people who are playing politics with veterans.”

American Action Network, a nonprofit tied to McCarthy’s Congressional Leadership Fund, launched a six-figure digital ad campaign aimed at Caraveo and 13 other House Democrats on May 2 based on polling the group says shows voters support raising the debt ceiling in exchange for the GOP bill’s spending cuts.

The 30-second video opens with images of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – familiar villains in conservative attack ads – as a narrator declares, “Their extreme policies made our economy a mess. Now they refuse to responsibly raise the debt ceiling.”

The narrator continues: “They voted against saving billions in unspent COVID funds, rejected cutting red tape to lower your costs, and even voted against reducing America’s debt, keeping us reliant on China. Instead of negotiating common-sense solutions, they’re putting the American economy in crisis. Shame on Congresswoman Yadira Caraveo. Tell her to stop playing partisan games.”

In response to the ad, a Caraveo spokeswoman pointed to a statement the lawmaker issued after last week’s vote.

“One of Congress’s key responsibilities is paying our bills and continuing to ensure the full faith and credit of the United States,” said Caraveo, who represents the 8th Congressional District. “Unfortunately, instead of passing a clean debt ceiling bill, Speaker McCarthy chose to risk economic catastrophe by offering a bill with poison pill provisions that would hurt hard-working American families, veterans, and law enforcement.”

Caraveo said it’s time to “stop this political brinksmanship,” called for a “clean debt ceiling bill,” and added: “Then, once we have averted economic disaster, we can and should take a hard look at the federal budget and rein in wasteful spending.”

Dan Conston, the GOP-aligned group’s president, said in a statement: “Liberals in Congress proved that they either aren’t listening to or don’t care about what Americans want, which is responsibly getting our fiscal house in order while increasing the debt ceiling.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet sparred with Fox News host Neil Cavuto during a May 3 appearance on the network’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” show, arguing that McCarthy’s push to extend Trump’s tax cuts while demanding steep reduction in domestic spending was a nonstarter.

“From a political point of view, it makes no sense,” Bennet said. “From an economic point of view, it is a disaster. And what the American people, I think, have said is we don’t want chaos.”

Bennet added that he supports abolishing the debt ceiling, calling the limit “a loaded revolver that doesn’t do anybody any good.”

Ernest Luning has covered politics for Colorado Politics and its predecessor publication, The Colorado Statesman, since 2009. He’s analyzed the exploits, foibles and history of state campaigns and politicians since 2018 in the weekly Trail Mix column.