Colorado Republican Senate candidate Cory Gardner has a problem. His campaign has focused on energy, jobs, Obamacare, environmental regulation — on a whole range of issues important in Colorado and the nation right now. But Gardner has become another GOP candidate snagged on social issues as his opponent, Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall, slams him relentlessly on the subject of contraception, claiming Gardner would “make birth control illegal.”

There’s some evidence Udall’s attacks are working; he has a big lead among women voters in Colorado, although Gardner has an equally large lead among men, and the race appears virtually tied. (Udall leads by a single point in the RealClearPolitics average of polls, but there was no public polling of the Colorado race in August, so we won’t really know until new surveys are done.)