Yesterday, the nails were hammered into the coffin of the mayoral candidacy of former Aurora City Councilman Steve Hogan for GOP voters. The AFL-CIO sent out two different mailers pimping Hogan and trashing Ryan Frazier using a page out of Congressman Ed Perlmutter's playbook, just as Hogan's campaign did last week. When the organization headed by President Obama's best bud, Richard Trumka, is the messenger for your campaign you can immediately consider yourself persona non grata to conservatives.

As Lynn Bartels of The Denver Post notes, the AFL-CIO is also backing the teacher’s union-approved Denver school board candidacies of Emily Sirota and Artur Jimenez.

A Steve Hogan beloved by both Ed Perlmutter and the AFL-CIO is a Steve Hogan most certainly disqualified in the eyes of Republican voters. 

You can see the two smear pieces here.

The mailers try to blame Frazier for the bad economy by accusing his company, just as Ed Perlmutter did last year, of sending Aurora jobs overseas. Last week we mockingly asked if Steve Hogan's campaign was being run by Ed Perlmutter. With the two AFL-CIO hit pieces in addition to Hogan's attack ads that looked strikingly similar to Perlmutter's attack ads, we're beginning to wonder if there actually is something to that. 

This all appears to be Hogan's attempt to shore up the liberal vote in Aurora. A Magellan Strategies poll released by the Frazier campaign in August showed Frazier up over Hogan 27-14. Among GOP respondents, Frazier was up 21 points over Hogan, but among Democrats Frazier's lead over Hogan was only 4 points.

As the other Democrat in the race, "Defector Debbie" Stafford has raised little money, Hogan is hoping to become the de facto Democrat in the race. In going all out for the left wing vote in Aurora, Hogan has now thoroughly rebuked conservatives and is likely to watch his support on the right evaporate.

There has also been chatter in conservative circles that Hogan's campaign has received significant financial backing from the all-powerful liberal law firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber & Schreck. Hogan's campaign finance reports shows at least $3,000 in donations from Norman Brownstein himself and associates in his political orbit that are well known in Democrat fundraising circles.

While one source noted Brownstein associates have tried to play both sides by donating small amounts to Frazier's campaign, it appears they are doubling down on Hogan. 

With all of this news about the extensive web of liberal backers going to bat for Hogan, we won't blame Republicans if they flee to Jude Sandvall or Ryan Frazier.