We’re encountering Fractured Fairy Tales on the campaign trail lately, including some mailers that have us scratching our heads.

We’ll start with the Western Slope and the race in Senate District 5 between Republican Olen Lund of Paonia and incumbent Democratic Sen. Kerry Donovan of Vail.

The Colorado Economic Leadership Fund recently sent out a mailer that said Lund would stand up to special interests, including those in Denver. Thing is, the Colorado Economic Leadership Fund is based in Denver. Its major backer is the oil and gas industry.

Saying that a candidate will stand up to Denver and special interests loses a little of its punch when the mailer is paid for by a Denver-based committee funded by special interests.

Meanwhile, a mailer hitting Republican candidate Kristina Alley, who’s running for House District 28, caused some head-scratching in Capitol M’s neighborhood this weekend.

The mailer, which calls Alley “an extremist culture warrior,” links her to former state Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt of Colorado Springs.

FYI to Our Colorado Values, which has been sending out some pretty ugly mailers against Alley: he’s not exactly a household name in Lakewood. Capitol M showed the mailer to a couple of neighbors, and the reaction was universal. Who?

And finally: Secure PERA, a retiree group focused on the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association pension system, announced its endorsements for the legislature last week. And those endorsements come down on both sides of Senate Bill 200, the PERA reform measure that squeaked through the legislature this year with little support from Democrats.

Sixteen lawmakers – Democrats in both the House and Senate who voted against SB 200 – won endorsements. But so did a couple of legislators who voted for it, including Democratic Reps. Adrienne Benavidez of Commerce City, Edie Hooton of Boulder, Chris Kennedy of Lakewood and Mike Weissman of Aurora, along with a lone Republican to win a Secure PERA endorsement, Rep. Kevin Van Winkle of Highlands Ranch.

One of the four sponsors of SB 200 – House Majority leader KC Becker of Boulder – didn’t make the endorsement list. She’s the only one running for re-election in 2018.