Jay Marvin was once the fieriest of radio talk-show hosts, as is made clear in our 1998 feature article, "Double Trouble." By the time of a 2007 Message column, "Progress?," which profiled him in the context of his current station, AM 760, he'd mellowed considerably. But the combative Marvin resurfaces in the context of an online rant about Mark Udall, in which he accuses the senator-elect of being "cold" and "removed," and of curtly dismissing the efforts of Marvin's wife, Mary, who volunteered on his behalf.
Marvin published his thoughts on his personal blog, JMarvin.Wordpress.com, only to subsequently remove them. In this case, however, gone doesn't mean gone forever. The folks at CompleteColorado.com grabbed the text and republished it under the headline "The Trouble With Udall." Since then, the subject's surfaced on this page of the SlapstickPolitics blogspot -- and Brad Jones of the conservative FaceTheState.com site made Marvin's about-face the subject of a "radio minute" accessible here. Finally, on Tuesday, Marvin took on the topic again under the headline "Udall Again?," in which he suggests that his personal feelings don't matter nearly as much as "how Udall votes."
"I said what I had to say and I thought that was the end of it," Marvin explains. "I kind of want to redirect the blog a little bit to be more about the media, more about politics -- but not in that kind of vein -- and more about books and art. So I took it down, and then everybody makes a big deal of it." He adds, "I'm flattered I have so many readers."
As well he should be. Click "More" to read the original post, followed by Marvin's subsequent take. -- Michael Roberts
Marvin's original December 5 post:
The Trouble With Udall.Posted on December 5, 2008 by jaymarvin
Even before the election I dropped hints on the air I wasn't happy with Congressman, now Senator elect Mark Udall.
So what's the beef?
When I first got to AM760 most progressive pols ignored my show. The only two who would give of their time were Mark Udall and Bill Ritter, who later went on to be Governor.
In return I started to give Mark Udall money for his run for the Senate, and when the race got underway my wife Mary went to work full time on his campaign. What she found in the campaign HQ was not pretty site. Interns-for many of them it was their first job-were treated with disrespect and arrogance. Several times Mary was told to out and out lie to people on the phones.
But it didn't stop there.
Behind Mark Udall's well crafted image there was back stabbing and all kinds in inner office politics. Most of you know it costs a ton of cash to run for the Senate these days, and the seat vacated by Wayne Allard was one of the most highly contested seats in the country. Millions were poured into the race. Udall had 18 million in attack ads thrown at him.
Udall needed money.
Mary came up with what she thought was a great idea: contribute a certain amount of money and you would get to play around of golf with Udall. She was told no. Udall is a cold removed man. Here's an example. He would come to the Denver campaign office be led down a set of stairs to an office where the door would be shut and he'd make his pitch calls for money.
The whole time Mary was there he never once stopped to thank or say hello to any of the kids busting their butts on his behalf.
The next idea Mary came up with was holding a fund raiser-which we would pay for- at our house where if you gave a certain amount of money you could have drinks and light snacks with the Congressman. She was told no because they had already done enough fund raisers in the Denver.
Of course you guessed it.
They had another fund raiser in Denver. We couldn't figure out why they would do this to us. Here Mary was working for Udall for free, and we had given him a fair amount of money, but we let it pass.
The next idea Mary came up with was for me to reach out to Todd Mohr of Big Head Todd and The Monsters to do a acoustic set in a small intimate place for a good size contribution. Todd said yes, and Mary and I went to Red Rocks to talk to Todd's manager to close the deal. He had indicated until things were locked down he only wanted to deal with Mary.
I was also told Todd wanted me there so he wouldn't feel uncomfortable, and there would be someone present he knew.
By this time Mary couldn't take the bull[Censored] going on in Udalls' campaign office and quit on good terms. She was also suffering from health problems. She still suffers from them by the way.
When it came time for the Todd Mohr event to happen not only were we not invited-to something Mary had worked hard make happen- we received an email with a solicitation to come to the event if we gave money!
Mary was crushed. I was mad. But we got over it convinced Udall knew nothing about it.
The last draw came election night. Udall had won and beaten Bob Schaffer. I was broadcasting live from the Democratic ballroom at a downtown hotel. My producer, John Turk, went up to Udall's press secretary Taylor West to ask for in interview. We were told no. Now keep in mind I had given this guy money, had pitched for him on the air, and had even carried water for him when some of his votes got him into trouble with his core.
Where were the TV stations when the election campaign was going on? Did they even lift a finger to help this guy.
The worst part of it was after all we gad done for Mark Udall on the air, John Turk was treated like [Censored], he was only doing his job-and we were denied an interview with the newly elected Senator. It was only after I got in a yelling match with Udall's campaign manager were we granted a short, tense live interview on the air.
There were many more incidents of the Udall minions walking all over Mary and myself.
I'm not going to go into the rest here. Let's just say Udall is a phony. He is cold, and has a well crafted image that covers who he really is. And let me also say I will never have this man on my show again as long as I'm on the air in this market.
Now you know. Judge for your self about Udall and his actions. In doing so ask yourself how you would feel if this happened to you or a member of your family.
Marvin's December 9 followup:
Udall Again?No, nothing here bad about Mark Udall. It seems people are making a big deal over the fact I yanked the post about Udall down. Why on earth did I do it people have been asking me in email and on other blogs.
Because I said what I had to say, and because who really cares how the Senator-elect treated me and myself and my wife Mary.
The only things that's going to count is how Udall votes.
One last thing: no one made me take the post down-I took it down. We have a lot of problems in this country. Time to move forward, time to band together and get these things fixed. January 20th can't come soon enough for me and for you.
