Messenger: Mark Williams

Candidate: Mark Williams

Contest: 2nd CD

Affiliation: D

Date delivered: May 31, 2018

Click here for message

Message type: email

Message tone: positive

About the message: This is actually a newspaper ad paid for by 2nd Congressional candidate Mark Williams campaign that a campaign spokeswoman said ran or will run in the Boulder Daily Camera. It purports to be a story about Williams as a "maverick" who will "disrupt our corrupt Congress." Jan Crawford sent the ad to a media list May 31 with no other clarifying text.

A Camera ad representative said the ad has yet to run, and that when it does it will not have the byline or font of a news story.

The problem is, we can find no evidence that a "Colorado Wire Service" exists or that a news story under this headline exists or that a Colorado journalist named Nick Hernandez exists.

We've asked the campaign, which sent out the ad this morning, several questions about this ad, and thus far have received this response from Crawford: "I just sent this out to everyone and it is a paid ad and I didn't realize that it shouldn't have gone out to our press list. My apologies for any misconceptions."

UPDATE: Asked why this ad should NOT be called fake news, Crawford emailed "Sandra -- I don't know what else to say. It clearly says that it is an advertorial and is paid for by the campaign. I sent my apologies."

Williams faces former University of Colorado regent Joe Neguse in the June 26 Democratic primary for this open seat vacated by Rep. Jared Polis' gubernatorial run.

About the messenger: Mark Williams is an entrepreneur and Air Force veteran who served in Desert Storm.

The messenger's money: