By admin 
Democrat Jessica Killin, who is running to flip Colorado’s 5th Congressional District this year, launched her first attack ads against Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, both of which feature a misleading claim about the Colorado Springs congressman.
The narrator in the pair of 30-second spots claims that Crank asked for a special waiver “allowing him to take gifts from his lobbyist buddies behind closed doors” and “without disclosing them.”
There are some big asterisks behind those assertions.
Crank did waiver with the House Ethics Committee in March 2025. But it was as part of a wedding — his daughter’s — and not for a blanket exception allowing him to skirt the strict laws and rules for members of Congress when it comes to gifts.
Members of Congress can seek such an exemption for special occasions, like a wedding, the birth or adoption of a child or a death in their family. But they must get the sign-off from both the Republican and Democratic leader on the House Ethics Committee first.
The waiver does not allow a member of Congress to receive a gift from any lobbyist, just one who is a personal friend. (Lobbyists are otherwise prohibited from giving a gift to a member of Congress.) And it only kicks in if the gift is of more than $250 in value, because a gift of lesser value wouldn’t have to be reported anyways.
Crank’s waiver request was granted by the panel’s Republican chair, U.S. Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, and the committee’s ranking Democrat, U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of California. Their signatures appear on the document.
Images of the waiver included in the ads are blurred or cropped so Guest and DeSaulnier’s signatures aren’t visible.
Eve Sparks, a spokeswoman for Crank, said the waiver was sought “out of an abundance of caution at the advice of counsel and disclosed months in advance of his only daughter’s wedding on May 12, 2025.”
Crank didn’t ultimately receive any gifts as part of his daughter’s wedding, Sparks said, adding that no lobbyists were even invited to the celebration.
The waiver is not just for gifts from lobbyist friends. It allows members of Congress to skip reporting any gift they would have to otherwise report.
“This is a desperate attempt by a losing campaign to smear Jeff Crank,” Sparks said in a written statement.
While it’s technically true that the waiver could have allowed Crank to accept a gift valued at more than $250 from a lobbyist who is a close personal friend and not disclose it, it would have been allowed only as part of his daughter’s wedding and only after getting approval from the top Democrat and Republican on the House Ethics Committee. The reporting waiver is sought after a member of Congress receives a separate, confidential waiver exempting them from normal gift limits for a special event, like a wedding, birth or death in the family.
But, again, Crank says he didn’t actually receive any gifts as part of his daughter’s wedding and no lobbyists were invited. And there was no indication his intention with the waiver was to get a secret gift from a lobbyist or lobbyists.
Crank isn’t the only member of Colorado’s congressional delegation to apply for and receive a gift disclosure waiver.
U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, after the birth of her second son.
Emily Dalgleish, Killin’s campaign manager, defended the ad and doubled down on the attack.
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“These waivers are rare and rarer still when the event is for a family member rather than the member of Congress himself,” she said in a written statement. “Normal ethics rules restrict the gifts lobbyists can give members of Congress, and require public disclosure, but Jeff Crank asked for a way around that requirement. And because he got it, no one knows what gifts he received, who gave them or what they were worth.”
Dalgleish added that the Killin campaign couldn’t find another example of a member of Congress seeking a gift reporting waiver for a wedding that wasn’t their own.
Crank’s campaign said the Ethics Committee directed the congressman to filed the reporting waiver.
“The waiver is designed to protect a member’s family from scurrilous attacks and allows them to enjoy their family member’s wedding without having to worry about a political opponent criticizing the type of coffee maker the newlyweds received,” the campaign said in a statement. “At his daughter’s wedding, Rep. Crank anticipated no gifts and received no gifts, but was happy to err on the side of caution.”
Other attacks in Killin’s ads
Killin’s ads also label Crank as a political insider who worked for special interests. That’s a reference to Crank’s work for Americans for Prosperity, the conservative political nonprofit founded by the Koch brothers where he worked as the Colorado state director before becoming a regional director and the organization’s national chief operating officer. The group doesn’t disclose its donors.
Killin, an Army veteran, is hardly new to politics herself.
Most recently, she served as chief of staff to Doug Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband. Before that she was chief of staff for Democratic U.S. Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Carolyn Maloney of New York and Donna Shalala of Florida. (Maloney and Shalala are no longer in Congress.)
Killin also worked as a lobbyist for the United Services Automobile Association, known as USAA.
Other questionable attack ads hitting the airwaves
Killin isn’t the only Democratic candidate running for Congress in Colorado this year making a questionable claim in an attack ad.
Former Aspen City Councilman Dwayne Romero, the Democrat trying to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd in the 3rd Congressional District, is running a 30-second spot accusing Hurd of “only listening to his donors,” namely “Arizona special interests out to steal our water.”
That accusation is based on a single $1,500 campaign donation Hurd received in June from the Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association, a nonprofit utility cooperative that manages water in the Phoenix area.
Other recent recipients of campaign donations from the association include Democratic U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette of Denver and Joe Neguse of Lafayette.
Republican congressional candidates in Colorado don’t appear to be running attack ads yet, though some super PACs supporting GOP candidates are and those ads are making false or misleading claims.
For instance, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the federal super PAC tied to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, is running a new ad in the 8th Congressional District attacking Democratic state Rep. Manny Rutinel, who is running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans of Fort Lupton.
The ad cites a Substack post from liberal provocateur and influencer Deep Singh Badhesha, who highlighted how Rutinel used to support doing away with private health insurance. Rutinel now backs a public health insurance option, which makes the ad’s claim that Rutinel is “pushing a plan that would outlaw private insurance” false.
The Protect and Serve PAC, a pro-law enforcement group that is backing Evans, is also running an attack ad against Rutinel featuring misleading claims about his position on his funding of the police.
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