CompleteColorado.com reports that emails show U.S. Senator Mark Udall’s (D-CO) office pressured the Colorado Division of Insurance to downplay the number of insurance cancellations caused by the rollout of ObamaCare. A full 249,199 Colorado citizens were victimized by ObamaCare’s cancellations. According to the emails, Udall’s office hoped to change the definition of a “cancellation” as a way to lower the number. All of this occurred late last year as the storm around cancellations was engulfing Democrats and the president.
From an email inside the Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI), Director of External Affairs Jo Donlin bluntly stated to her colleagues:
Sen. Udall says our numbers were wrong. They are not wrong. Cancellation notices affected 249,199 people. They want to trash our numbers. I’m holding strong while we get more details. Many have already done early renewals. Regardless, they received cancellation notices.
Donlin’s email was sent November 14.
Udall won his Senate seat with only 53% of the vote in 2008, a wave year for Democrats. The Senator is up for what many believe will be a tough re-election bid in 2014, and in a purple state that everyday feels more red than blue.
A poll released just a few days after the November 14 email showed that Udall is well under 50% against his likely Republican opponents and only a couple of points ahead in a head-to-head match-up.
Moreover a plurality of 47% do not believe Udall deserves reelection.
While the national media is likely to either ignore or push back against today’s revelations, there is little doubt the emails will have an impact on Udall’s reelection bid. At the very least, the emails show that Udall’s office was pouring its energies into spinning bad news instead of using that energy to bring some relief to hundreds of thousands of constituents victimized by the ObamaCare boondoggle for which Udall voted.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC