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WASHINGTON The Democratic governor of Colorado is soft on a convicted killer and the Democrats' hopeful in Maine would dole out millions in tax dollars to immigrants in the country illegally, the Republican Governors Association tells voters in ads that started running Tuesday.

The emotionally charged spots are just the latest examples of unflinching ads from the GOP governors' political arm, which is run by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The highly critical ads come as polls show both Colorado and Maine to be tight races and the latest finance reports show the Republicans' committee with more than $70 million saved to help GOP candidates.

The ads are against Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a first-term Democrat who is in a tight race against former Rep. Bob Beauprez, and Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud, who is challenging deeply unpopular first-term Gov. Paul LePage in Maine.

The RGA was already advertising in those races and the new ads will take the place of earlier ones. In Colorado, that means $700,000 in Denver and Colorado Springs will be spent on the ad; in Maine, it's a $500,000 buy in Portland.

In Colorado, the 30-second ad cites Hickenlooper's suggestion that he might scrap the death sentence of a multiple murderer on death row if he loses his re-election campaign. Hickenlooper already has given the inmate Nathan Dunlap a temporary reprieve from execution as long as Hickenlooper is governor.

Dunlap was convicted of killing four employees inside an Aurora, Colorado, Chuck E. Cheese after the children's restaurant closed. In the decades since the 1993 killings, advocates have pointed to failures of Dunlap's trial lawyers and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder developments that raised concerns for Hickenlooper.

In an interview with CNN, Hickenlooper suggested he could make that reprieve permanent if he loses in November.

"There are obviously remedies that the governor can do, you know," Hickenlooper told CNN for a documentary. "I could give it a full clemency between Election Day and the end of the year."

One of the victims' fathers, Bob Crowell, called Hickenlooper a "coward" for the move. The RGA used that assessment in its ads.

The governor's office said Hickenlooper was dealing in hypotheticals and was discussing legal options that are available to him. His campaign called the ads unfair and driven by politics, not justice.

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Democrats running for governor in Colorado, Maine targeted in harsh GOP ads