Mark Udall news round-up

The Rocky Mountain News reports on the Mark Udall fundraising success, saying:

Democrat Mark Udall outspent his Republican opponent Bob Schaffer by almost 3-to-1 in the third quarter in the race for Colorado's open U.S. Senate seat.

Campaign finance reports filed Wednesday showed that Udall spent $5.2 million between July 24 and Sept. 30, while Schaffer spent $1.9 million.

The reports show that Udall also raised more money than Schaffer for the period, but not by much - $2.5 million vs. $1.7 million.

For the entire campaign, Udall has raised about $10 million, compared with $6.6 million for Schaffer. Udall has spent $10.7 million during the campaign, while Schaffer has spent $3.9 million.

Schaffer had a lot more money in the bank - $2.7 million compared with $546,000 for Udall.

Both candidates received a majority of their latest contributions from individuals.

Reminder: Today Udall and Schaffer met to debate. Denver News Channel 7 live blogged the whole thing, so take a look at the transcript here. Some highlights:

Senate candidates Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer argued over their differences on issues from the economy to higher education in their most recent debate Wednesday.

The 30-minute discussion sponsored by 7NEWS, the League of Women Voters and the Colorado Bar Association began on the subject of trust and the seemingly constant barrage of negative ads that have aired in the past few weeks. The candidates both claimed they have ran nothing but positive ads in the campaign.

The Colorado Independent also did a live blog, but they've taken it down and will update it with a transcript as soon as it becomes available, so check back later.

Okay... now that we covered that, let me hit you with some more reasons why pro-choice Mark Udall is the best candidate for U.S. Senate in Colorado: Not only is he a co-sponsor of the Prevention First act, but he has received a 100% pro-choice rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America every year since he was elected to Congress in 1998. And on his campaign website Rep. Udall writes "As a matter of constitutional rights, however, I do not believe we can compromise a woman's right to make her own decisions with regard to her reproductive health. My view is that we should have a policy of making abortion safe and legal, but rare--and that good information about family planning, contraception, adoption, sexually-transmitted diseases and other reproductive health matters should be a part of our consideration."

You can learn more about the race on our Race of the Week webpage. Not a Colorado voter? No problem. See if we've endorsed pro-choice candidates in your state or district... and, as always, stay tuned for more information on the Udall/Schaffer race. For more ways to get involved with choice in Colorado, please visit our fantastic affiliate NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado.