Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) and his ever-changing positions on…well, on everything, seems to have created a new Republican challenger for his seat in CD-6.
As Ernest Luning reports for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman:
Douglas County Republican Roger Edwards announced on Wednesday that he’s challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman in next year’s GOP primary, charging the five-term incumbent with paying lip service to conservative priorities and using “identity politics” to divide residents of the battleground 6th Congressional District, he told Colorado Politics.
“It has become exceedingly more difficult to support Mike,” Edwards, 67, said in an interview, citing Coffman’s congressional voting record and his attempts to distance himself from presidential candidate Donald Trump during last year’s election…
…The last straw, Edwards said, was Coffman’s vote in May against a House bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, after years of campaigning on a promise to overturn the law.
Edwards also derided Coffman’s score from the conservative Heritage Action for America organization.
“He has 55 percent, according to the Heritage Action — that’s an ‘F.’ If you go to school, that’s an ‘F.’ Don’t the citizens of Colorado’s 6th District deserve better than an ‘F’ congressman? I think so,” Edwards said. He added that Coffman’s support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, status as a career politician and “close ties to establishment Republicans” are also reasons he decided to run.
In response to news of Edwards’ Primary challenge, a spokesperson for Rep. Coffman brought up…Nancy Pelosi?
“Mike has withstood literally tens of millions of dollars of lies put on TV by Nancy Pelosi and her political cronies in the last couple years,” campaign advisor Tyler Sandberg told Colorado Politics.
Uh, okay. Shouting “Nancy Pelosi” — who hasn’t been House Speaker since 2011 — has become something of an involuntary tick for supporters of Coffman. What does Pelosi have to do with any of this?
Anyway, Brian Eason of the Denver Post has more on Edwards’ announcement:
A Vietnam veteran who works in logistics, Edwards came out of the gates swinging at Coffman, whom he called a “career politician” that says one thing publicly, while voting another way.
Edwards singled out Coffman’s “lip service” to repealing and replacing Obamacare, while ultimately voting against a GOP plan to undo major pieces of the health care law…
…Edwards is coming at Coffman from the populist right, chastising Coffman for his “grudging support of the president,” and noting that Republicans have made little progress on Trump’s agenda, including tax reform, a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and an infrastructure package.
If Edwards proves to be a compelling speaker, it’s not out of the question that he could generate some real support through a Congressional assembly next Spring. Remember that in 2016, a complete unknown named Kyle Bradell managed to capture 26.1% of delegates at the GOP’s Congressional assembly — just shy of the 30% needed to get his name onto the Primary ballot. If Edwards can put together a modest campaign by the Spring, it’s not out of the question that he could at least make it onto the June Primary ballot.
Does Edwards have a real chance of beating Coffman in the June Republican Primary? Probably not, but he is still trouble for Coffman regardless. Tuesday’s election results indicate a coming Democratic wave, and the last thing Coffman wants to do right now is to tack back to the right in order to make sure he secures Republican support.
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Divide and conquer, MFers! Keep bringing it, bannon; we LOVE it!
Say goodnight, Bird-Brain Coffman; either way, you lose.
Man — first little tommie tanqueray, and now this!
I'm telling you, Mikey is going to drop out to become Cynthia's Lieutenant Governor.
Coffman-Coffman '18!
#Losing!
"Now turn your head and Coffman."
You're thinking of Brauchler.
Leave it to the wingnut Republiclowns to find someone who’s determined to make Mikey look relatively sane by comparison . . .
Although if ‘F’ is some new wingnutese for “fuckhead,” well, he’s got one thing right?!?
Well now. This explains the long absence of one of our coveted contributors. Buckle up!
You mean Passionate Prune? He was always chomping at the bit for a primary challenger to take on Mikey.
Yes. He outed himself here long ago.
Wait – you're saying (or rather, he said or implied himself) PP is our newest candidate?
Yes.
Yup. Compare this post of Veterans Day 2016 to this one on Edwards' campaign website.
I’m kind of proud of him, actually. Go PP!
^^ What mj55said.
Yeah. It wouldn’t hardly be a Real Republican primary race without at least one mindless Limbaugh-parroting dittohead . . .
Republican primary voters won't find anything from him on CP to take away from his to-the-right challenge of Coffman.
I know, right? That's why it's awesome. It should help whittle Coffman down, or at least make him seem wishy-washy and weaker, as he tries to be all things to all of the voters in his district.
The VA hospital construction will be finished, but it probably still won't be taking patients by November 2018, so that will be another promise broken by "Mr. Oversight" Coffman. And Democrat and combat veteran Jason Crow will be a formidable opponent.
Staffing shortages plague the existing hospital – how will they staff two? Particularly when Trump's administration is all patriotism and no funding where the VA and veterans in general are concerned?
Our former troll, now congressional candidate Edwards, has advocated for more privatization of VA services. That's not working, either. If Crow can articulate a plan that keeps existing VA services and supplements with accountable private services, in the Democratic wave election of 2018, he stands a good chance of winning.
The Pear was never a troll, just a dissenter. He didn't give offense for the sake of giving offense, which is what a troll does.
Every time he lost an argument, which was pretty much every time, he resorted to “KOOK, etc. . . .
. . . that veneer of erstwhile pretend reasonableness never hid very well his trollish heart.
As pretty much any bartender will tell you, the fact that a guy will have a beer with you doesn’t mean that he’s not a complete asshole.
True, PP thought he was on a mission to enlighten us Libz and provide a dissenting point of view. He also wrote various diaries, which most trolls never have the guts to do.
Powerful Pear, as Dio said, did engage in quite a bit of gaslighting and name-calling trollish behavior. Much of it was aimed at me. I received a rather nasty letter from him when I published an anonymous email address once.
If you want to know what PP's missive said, just read this, and substitute "mamajama55" for "Black Crow" (the Democratic candidate , Jason Crow). It made just about as much sense about me as it does about Crow, i.e., little to none.
I did raise the question of whether he was the Roger D Edwards who had stolen valor. I no longer think that "our" PP is the stolen valor guy, but it was a reasonable question to raise. So that's probably the source of his animosity towards me, and he's entitled to it.
That, and I'm certainly a KOOK! in his eyes. That's an honor I share with most people on here who voted Democratic in the last election.
I meant what I wrote about being proud of him for having the guts to follow his dream and primary Coffman. We agree about almost nothing, but his efforts should make it easier to bring Mikey Coffman down.
I'm not sure the stolen valor thing was reasonable. Yes, they have the same name but at no time did pear claim to be a marine. Sometimes your adventures in Googleland lead you far afield.
Your loyalty to a fellow veteran is commendable.
More important, is that he loves dogs.
Roger Edwards wants a border wall with Mexico. Tell us how that works with the cliffs in Big Bend National Park. (Roger is really PP?? Wow!!).
Also Roger, how about talking about that largely unguarded 3,000 mile border with Canada? Many of the 9-11 terrorists came in without getting their feet wet crossing the Rio Grande.
C.H.B., that has always amazed me when Tank or Trump or that Asshole in Iowa (Calves the Size of Cantaloupes) talk about building the wall or the fence or the moat. And Passionate Prune joins the chorus.
They profess to not want another 9/11. Well, I don't either. But they simply do not address the fact that the 9/11 terrorists entered from Canada.
There followers have got to be brain dead.