Don't be fooled.

Heads up to Democrats: It looks like a nasty hit piece by the Hicks campaign. 

That's only half right. 

It is bait, to trick Democrats into throwing away their vote and thereby elect Brad Hicks, the Republican candidate. 

Here is the two-sided hit piece sent to Democrats, shown as being paid for by the campaign committee of a Republican state senator who has been funneling big blocks of money to Hicks:

Here is what is going on: The front side brings up 20-year-old allegations, later dropped as not prosecutable, against a person on a Colorado-based campaign consultancy whom Denise Krause employed in the primary election. Why she hired an out-of-state firm is beyond me, but she did. No one claimed that Krause had anything to do with anything improper, but it was an attack point in the primary election in part because the firm she hired advises Republican candidates, too. Hicks brought it up again. That is the hit: you cannot trust Denise Krause. 

The trick to fool Democrats is the supposed "warning" about the third-party candidate Clay Bearnson. If it were a real warning, the Hicks campaign would have used a grainy, distorted photo of Bearnson the way it does in real negative ads. This "warning" is an invitation to leftist Democrats to support Bearnson. It tells them that he is a progressive who supports universal health care. The ad presents this as a negative -- and Republicans do in fact oppose it -- but it is signaling to Democratic voters that if, for some reason, you don't like Krause, then vote for Bearnson. And see his happy, smiling face. What a nice guy! Too bad he likes the same thing Krause likes.

Hicks has abandoned the Mr. Nonpartisan, nice-guy message. His advertisements reposition him into a Republican streetfighter in his attacks on Krause. People who hate Democrats and relish liberal tears will be happy to see Hicks has taken off the gloves. He has solidified the Republican vote many times over. Krause is a retired healthcare executive, but he likens her to a sleazy lawyer from a TV show -- take that! Ka-pow! Associate her with someone else's sex crime -- another Ka-pow! 

I suspect that GOP polls show that Hicks' effort to get independent, non-affiliated votes failed. Democrats and non-affiliated voters aren't voting for Republicans this year. His only chance for Republican victory is to get Democratic-leaning voters not to vote for a Democrat. 

How? Put serious money into promoting a third-party spoiler by portraying him as someone Republicans dislike. The Democratic voter in favor of progressive policies who wants to say "NO" to MAGA and Hicks can do it by voting third party -- and thereby electing Hicks!

The irony is that Krause is progressive herself and supports healthcare for all, and in Hicks' negative ads about Krause he calls her "extreme" for holding views like that.

The trick is to get Democratic voters to sabotage themselves with this bait. 

Clever. Diabolical. 

It will work if Democrats fall for it.

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