September 04, 2012 05:34 PM UTC

New Ad To Deliver Coors Coup de GrГўce?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Our friends at National Journal report:

House Majority PAC is up with another TV ad hitting a Republican challenger this morning. But there’s a bit more behind the new spot, which goes after Republican Joe Coors in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District.

The ad…is part of a two-week, $500,000 buy in the Denver media market and criticizes Coors for “supporting and funding” Colorado’s failed personhood initiative. Coors donated $1,000 to the initiative, which would have banned abortion, in 2010, and he said in August that he wouldn’t support another try for the ballot measure. But it’s still a potent attack in Denver’s suburbs, where socially liberal voters have moved toward Democrats in recent years. This ad buy also serves as a neat example of why House Majority PAC exists in the first place.

Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter, the 7th District’s incumbent, doesn’t seem a likely candidate for a tough race after surviving 2010. Perlmutter’s district is more than 40 percent new to him, but it’s only slightly less Democratic-leaning than the old version of his seat. But Coors, from the wealthy brewing family, has already invested over $600,000 of his own money in the race and has run over $700,000 worth of TV ads, with another $1.8 million of TV time reserved between today and Election Day, according to Democratic media tracking.

Here’s the skinny: sources tell us that internal Democratic polls are much better for incumbent Rep. Ed Perlmutter than a poll distributed by the Joe Coors campaign showing Coors ahead. Especially with the message of Coors’ financial support for the “Personhood” abortion ban initiative properly introduced, Perlmutter moves from an on-paper competitive situation to a commanding position in this race–largely thanks to how that plays with suburban women.

Needless to say, a well-funded spot drilling on Joe Coors’ funding of an initiative to ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest is not going to help Coors patch things up with the ladies. And it may just be the beginning: we’ve heard about another, previously unreported donation by Coors in support of “Personhood,” and other unsavory details about Coors support for persons and causes repellent to suburban women voters waiting to be “discovered.”

Despite the big checks Coors is writing to fund his campaign, what we hear from Democrats is they want this race relegated to sideshow status as quickly as possible so they can focus on pickups elsewhere in Colorado–and by making Coors Ken Buck–style toxic immediately after Labor Day with women voters, they may have a formula for doing just that.