Cory Gardner is the target of the newest ad in our animated Kochville series, showing off his talent as a (bad) ventriloquist in hopes of impressing the Koch brothers.
From the billionaire brothers' perspective, there is much to like about Cory Gardner. Gardner has been in the pocket of big oil for his entire career, rejecting the science of climate change and attempting to eliminate environmental protections. Gardner has worked to end Medicare's guarantee and turn it into a voucher program. He's fought against raising the minimum wage, both nationally and in Colorado.
It's this record that earned him the admiration of the Koch brothers. In fact, Gardner attended the now infamous Koch billionaires summit, and audio leaked of his speech about the Koch brothers. As TIME summarized, "Gardner not-so-subtly suggested that their outside money efforts would decide his fate."
But the Koch brothers don't just need shills for their extreme self-serving agenda -- they need shills who can expand the map. And Cory Gardner's abysmal record on women's issues throws a wrench into that. Gardner sponsored a bill that would punish the doctors who perform abortions on rape victims more harshly than the rapists themselves, and he is still sponsoring a personhood bill that would outlaw common forms of birth control. It's hard to court female voters with that résumé.
