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Politics K-12 kept watch on education policy and politics in the nation’s capital and in the states. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: Federal, States.

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NEA Ad Buy in Colorado Slams GOP U.S. Senate Candidate on DREAM Act

By Lauren Camera — September 24, 2014 1 min read
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The National Education Association is the latest to throw money at the competitive Colorado Senate race, where incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat, now finds himself in a dead heat with Rep. Cory Gardner, the Republican challenger.

The teachers’ union dumped $200,000 into a Spanish TV ad buy that will run for two weeks in the Denver and Colorado Springs media markets.

The NEA ad, which began running Tuesday, dings Gardner for supporting legislative proposals that would make it more difficult for families to send their children to college. Parents showcased in the video slam the Colorado Republican for his vote in favor of the federal fiscal 2015 House budget, which would have cut access to the Pell grant, a college tuition assistance program for low- and middle-income students.

You can watch the ad here.

The 30-second spot, designed to target Hispanic and other Spanish-speaking voters, is part of a larger effort led by a coalition of political action committees, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Senate Majority PAC, and People for the American Way, which collectively plan to spend more than $1 million in the Colorado Senate race through the Nov. 4 election day.

The SEIU went live with its ad hitting Gardner on immigration earlier this month, highlighting his opposition to the DREAM Act, the legislative proposal that would provide permanent residency to high school graduates, who were brought to the United States as minors illegally by their families.

On Monday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which according to a report in Roll Call has spent more than $2 million in the Centennial State, launched an ad attacking the GOP candidate on birth control.

While Udall has enjoyed a consistent, though slight, lead in the polls all summer, the latest polling from Quinnipiac University shows Gardner 8 points ahead of Udall.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Politics K-12 blog.