After speaking with the survivor of a deadly gas explosion, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner on Tuesday called on the Senate Republicans' campaign arm to stop airing a television ad attacking Democrat John Hickenlooper over the former Colorado governor's response to the disaster.
But a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee said the group was standing by the ad that Erin Martinez, whose husband and brother were killed in the 2017 explosion in Firestone, last week called "horrifying" and Tuesday night said was exploiting her family's trauma for political gain.
The 30-second ad opens with footage of the April 17, 2017, blast that leveled the family's Weld County home due to an abandoned gas line that leaked into the basement.
Martinez' husband, Mark Martinez, and brother Joey Irwin were killed and she was injured in the explosion, which inspired pipeline safety legislation and led to a record $18.25 million penalty assessed against a company responsible for the blast.
The ad criticizes Hickenlooper for accepting money from another company that was involved with the gas line to fund projects through the governor's office. The narrator says, "No fines under Hickenlooper," even though his administration initiated the investigation that resulted in the largest payment for an infraction by an oil and gas company in state history.
Martinez demanded the NRSC pull the ad on Thursday when it first aired, saying the ad uses "images from the explosion and fire that destroyed my life and killed my husband, Mark, and my brother Joey" in a way that "disgraces" their memory.
The same day, Hickenlooper asked Gardner, who chaired the NRSC for the 2018 election cycle, to lean on his allies to take down the ad.
"A grieving family should never be forced to relive an unimaginable tragedy," Hickenlooper tweeted.
Gardner didn't respond to inquiries about the ad from Colorado Politics last week and remained silent until late Tuesday, when the senator told POLITICO in a statement that he had spoken to Martinez and wanted the NRSC to stop running the ad.
"I spoke to Erin Martinez today and expressed to her that I would not have personally run the ad, and I hope the ad comes down," Gardner said. "If I had the power to take down the ad, I would."
A spokeswoman for the Gardner campaign confirmed the statement and said the Republican talked with Martinez Tuesday after receiving a telephone message from her Monday.
Martinez said in a statement provided to POLITICO that she was glad Gardner wanted the ad pulled but said she was disappointed it took so long. A family spokeswoman said Martinez left a message for Gardner on his cell phone Friday morning.
"While I am glad that Sen. Gardner has finally realized the ad should be taken down, I am sorry that it has taken him and his staff more than four days to respond to my phone call and request for some relief for my family," Martinez said. "Our family’s trauma should not be the subject of a horrible political ad. We have worked very hard to create a positive legacy for my husband, Mark, and my brother Joey to ensure no one relives our nightmare.
"Sen. Gardner underestimates his power to have the ad taken down if he publicly speaks forcefully to make it happen. After talking to him, I wonder if he really understands the harm the ad has inflicted."
Legally, Gardner doesn't have any control over spending by the NRSC's independent-expenditure arm, which is spending millions to attack Hickenlooper in the pivotal Senate contest.
NRSC spokeswoman Joanna Rodriguez told Colorado Politics that the group stands by the statement she issued last week when demands to pull the ad first surfaced.
“The kind of grief Ms. Martinez and her family have survived is unimaginable, and their public fight to keep other Colorado families safe is incredibly important," Rodriguez said.
"John Hickenlooper said he was going to do the right thing to protect Colorado families right after the explosion, but then a private donation to his office from the gas company responsible changed that. He looked the other way and, as The Denver Post reported in October 2019, left office without getting the job done.”
Noting that Gardner was a former NRSC chair, Stewart Boss, national press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, tweeted late Tuesday that the Republican had "waited 4 days to even respond & he's let this ad exploiting a family's trauma run for nearly a week. pathetic weakness from Gardner & it's outrageous the NRSC still airing this 'horrible political ad.'"
The NRSC has spent nearly $3.3 million since the middle of June on advertising attacking Hickenlooper — more than half of the $6.4 million in TV and radio ad reservations for the Colorado Senate race the group made in April, though the spending-to-date total includes digital and other platforms that weren't part of the initial outlay.
The NRSC's Colorado blitz started about three weeks earlier than planned, as Republicans seized on rulings by the state's ethics commission that Hickenlooper improperly accepted airplane and limousine rides while on trips to promote the state. In sinister tones over jarring graphics, the NRSC pounded the former governor after the ethics panel hit Hickenlooper with a record fine and a contempt citation for snubbing a subpoena to testify at a virtual hearing.
The ad featuring the Firestone explosion continues a different line of attack, ripping Hickenlooper for accepting donations from companies to fund programs and activities, including $330,000 paid by one of the companies that was involved with the Firestone explosion.
Hickenlooper's campaign says there was nothing wrong with the public-private partnerships, which have been used by Democratic and Republican governors and funded projects including a statewide reading program for 4-year-olds and the Pedal the Plains bicycle tour on the Eastern Plains.