I also believe that a political statement is being made - politicians' credibility is questioned on a continuous basis to this day.

The marvellous irony here is that Nelson Hayward is bluffing the voters into thinking that he is the most sincere, caring man on the planet, yet he is having an affair and he has just murdered his campaign manager. He bluffs his wife and his lover. The only one he can't bluff is Columbo!

Of course we don't know what the writers had on their minds when that episode was written; however, the writers knew what was on most Americans' minds. Republicans--at that time--were making a lot of political hay out of "law and order" issues. The Cooper character was a "law and order" candidate. Also at that time we had a Republican administration that on a daily basis the public was finding out had no regard for "law and order" just as the Cooper character. What really convinced me was at the press conference scene when an aide comes up and whispers something about info gained from spies in the opponent's campaign . . . how many Americans even thought about such a sleasy tactic until the Watergate revelations. I do agree, however, that Columbo is a wonderful show and can be enjoyed by all regardless of their political leanings (He is a small-d democrat in that he is the ordinary guy's hero)

And what about all the stuff in the beginning of the episode when Harry Stone is on the phone with someone named Gomez, he is trying to get an endorsement out of him, and he tells Gomez to save all that bleeding heart minorty stuff for the 3000 creeps he controls (the union).
And later he is on the phone again and you can hear him ranting to someone to dig up a couple of Chicano kids, slip them a few bucks and let it look like they work for the opposition, and get them to bust into the east LA campaign headquaters.
There is a lot of shady business going on.

"And what about all the stuff in the beginning of the episode when Harry Stone is on the phone with someone named Gomez, he is trying to get an endorsement out of him, and he tells Gomez to save all that bleeding heart minorty stuff for the 3000 creeps he controls (the union)."

Can easily apply to a Democrat who takes the union vote for granted and isn't very sincere to begin with when it comes to delivering for them.

This just comes back to the fact that no matter what the writers own political beliefs were, they were just using a good occupation for a killer that was timely in that day and age. That's the same reason why they used a conservative talk radio host as a killer in the 90s, because the occupation was timely, not because they wanted to make a political statement (that's why Peter Fischer told Rush Limbaugh personally in a letter that they did not want to make Fielding Chase anything like Limbaugh from a personal standpoint. Just like to use a similar example, Milo Janus in "Exercise In Fatality" is a man a lot like Jack LaLanne in terms of success and occupation but Janus is nothing like Jack LaLanne personally).

Okay, I'll buy some of that; but remember in '72 the AFL-CIO didn't endorse the Democratic presidential ticket, and the Teamsters (and some other smaller labor unions) actually endorsed Nixon. A big story back then was how much of the labor vote ended up in the Republican column. Overall, I still think the Cooper character looks and sounds like a conservative Republican candidate.

As I recall, the Teamsters endorsement
of Nixon was made in return for Nixon
releasing Teamsters' President
Jimmy Hoffa from Federal prison.

I think you're right--obviously this could not have been a quid pro quo out-in-the-open arrangement, but a deal cut by shady phone calls and under-the-table stuff as suggested by the Cooper character's campaign manager. The campaign manager's phone calls about the "dirty" tricks reminded me of Donald Segretti's (sp?) stories of the pranks he and a handful of others pulled on Democratic candidates.

.....And we haven't even gotten into the whole MAFIA talk that goes on between Columbo and his dentist!! Boy!!! this episode is chockful of controversy!!!!