Colorado Republican operatives who filed a lawsuit accusing a union of illegally taking campaign money from noncitizens were pursuing a strategy of using the issue of illegal immigration for political gain. Republicans hoped to use the lawsuit, filed this summer, to "paint all unions with a broad brush" and "illustrate unions as facilitators of illegal immigration," according to internal e-mails obtained by The Denver Post. The GOP insiders were also working to "give weight" to campaign-finance-rule changes they were seeking from Republican Secretary of State Gigi Dennis that would effectively hobble traditionally Democratic union donors. They said they hoped to "dovetail" news coverage of the lawsuit with the start of the special session on illegal immigration and filed the suit the day the session began....