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July 29, 2013 12:12 PM UTC

New Coffman® Writes Checks His Caucus Can't Cash?

  • 19 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Rep. Mike Coffman.
Rep. Mike Coffman.

The Denver Post's Ryan Parker reports from Rep. Mike Coffman's packed event yesterday:

Speaking in Spanish, Coffman said he had been reaching out to the Hispanic community to "better understand your challenges."

"A comprehensive immigration reform proposal must include three essential elements; it must secure our borders and provide for effective enforcement of our immigration laws, it must contribute to the economic growth of our country, and it must be compassionate in keeping families together," Coffman said.

In a press release from Together Colorado, Coffman commits to "talk to Speaker Boehner" about bringing a comprehensive immigration reform bill to the House, as well as to bring less supportive Colorado Republicans to the table to hear the proponents' case:

Congressman Coffman said he will support a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for both DREAMers and adults who make up the 11 million aspiring Americans in the country…  
 
"I am going to talk to Speaker Boehner about bringing an [immigration reform] bill to floor," said Congressman Coffman. "In regard to Congressmen Tipton and Gardner, I plan to have them meet with you in my office or you in their district offices during the August recess," said Congressman Coffman.

We have repeatedly made plain our skepticism over Rep. Coffman's supposed "conversion" on the issue of immigration reform. Coffman's significant rhetorical shift on the issue, after years of taking a hard line more in common with his predecessor Tom Tancredo, is better explained by the dramatic reshaping of his congressional district–from Tancredo's deep-red Republican stronghold to one of the most competitive districts in America. Coffman's Hispanic constituency more than double during that redistricting process, from 9 to 20 percent. Coffman's change of heart on immigration reform has already failed at least one major test, when he voted against a popular program to defer immigration enforcement against so-called "DREAMer" undocumented students.

So the question becomes, what is Coffman offering to do? Coffman says he will "talk to" GOP House Speaker John Boehner about bringing some kind of immigration bill to the floor, but Boehner and House leadership have already rejected the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate. As of this writing the House plans to take up piecemeal immigration bills, which risks undoing the hard-won compromise reached by the Senate. There's an understanding among immigration reform supporters that a "big bill" compromise with concessions from both sides will ultimately be necessary, but that's not where the GOP-led House is going.

Immigration reform supporters are giving Rep. Coffman tremendous–maybe questionable–latitude to wholesale reverse his position on the issue. There's no question that helping to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year would work in Coffman's favor in an expected uphill 2014 re-election battle. Given the totality of circumstances, we think immigration supporters need to be extremely wary of empty promises from Coffman. Coffman has yet to align a single vote with his newfound rhetorical compassion for immigrants, and there is nothing easier in politics than making promises for which you can blame somebody else when they aren't kept.

The answer will be obvious soon enough.

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19 thoughts on “New Coffman® Writes Checks His Caucus Can’t Cash?”

  1. Yeah, I was watching the news and saw that Coffman 2.0 was out of his comfort zone in many ways.  Like, you know, speaking in public with, like, actual constituents, f'r instance.  But when some folks started giving him a standing ovation, I thought, don't fall for it, you guys.  He can only say that stuff in Spanish so the folks in my red(neck) neighborhood don't know what he's saying.  Away from the cameras, I'm sure the tune he's singing doesn't have a Latin beat. 

  2. Questionable????? Ask us in the pro-choice community.  Don't trust this guy at all.  He'll do nothing.

     

    Really, he's nothing but a Republican back-bencher holding a place.  And the new commercial?  Has anyone seen that?  What a piece of trash.  Mike, I taught you how to do that.  It's called innoculation.  But wait, you're only supposed to do that when you know the other side is going to tell lies about you and you want to get out front first.  Sorry, but doesn't work the other way around.  You can't tell lies and then expect people not to tell the truth.  You've got years of statements on the record and years of votes.

     

    Hahahahahahaha!

  3. "Write Checks His Caucus Can't Cash"?  Heck, he's counting on the fact they Won't cash them.

    Talk is cheap, and he knows his caucus will give him a free ride on this issue, and hope Coffman succeeds in fooling most of CD6 most of the time (or at least for the next 17 months).

    Boehner's House strategy of piece-mealing the immigration reforms so they will die one by one in the Senate is their attempt to blame Dems for failing to pass immigration reform.  Preventing any further bipartisan Senate deals is their secondary objective (ya catch McConnell's crack about McCain and Schumer getting married?http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/mitch-mcconnell-chuck-schumer_n_3670000.html?utm_hp_ref=politics  )

    All GOP politics at their darkest, most cynical depth.

  4. I suppose there is a lot of sceptism about Coffman but who knows maybe he is the Trojan Horse who can get to Republican leadership and forge a new path.  He is definitely a wily politician who wants to stay in office so anyone who underestimates his abilities to woo voters is courting disaster.  It's not a given that Romanoff can create a voting coalition that will unseat this guy.  Romanoff needs to step it up and be just as visible as Coffman in August.

  5. Clearly, Coffman isn't going to be able to get immigration reform any closer to passing through the House. He himself has admitted that the only reason for his change of heart is the change in his constituency. That's valid. After all, elected officials are supposed to represent the people who elected them, though not that many Rs seem to see it that way.

    But the truth is, no matter the level of sincerity or lack thereof in Coffman's new stance,  he will be completely unable to move his caucus on this issue.  After all, most of them come from districts as safe as his used to be. Instead of placing trust in Cofman,  the kind of CD6 voter to whom Coffman is appealing should simply recognize that it's time to elect a Democrat. 

    It's not as if Coffman, as a member of the majority, can do them any more good once elected than a minority Dem can.. Not even if he sincerely wants to, a pretty big "if".  So they lose nothing by booting him and gaining a Dem Rep who better represents them.

    And every seat Rs lose to Dems helps the cause of the constituents he is targeting by bringing us a step closer to booting the GOP from the House Majority and returning leadership to Dems. That's what it's really going to take to get the kind of immigration reform so many of Coffman's constituents want.

    What I see Coffman demonstrating here is that this district should no longer be represented by a Republican. Not even one who can speak Spanish. So can Andrew and, regardless of his past as a state legislator, he could certainly be trusted to support the best immigration reform plans now. For him, it would be going with, not against his own party's flow.

      2. BC: Very interesting, cool analysis. At the risk of being repetitive, may I repeat you?

        …the kind of CD6 voter to whom Coffman is appealing should simply recognize that it's time to elect a Democrat.

        [Whew, that was an ordeal. Every time I tried to copy and paste you, all sorts of weird jumping around and grey-outs and stuff happened. I hope I copied typed you accurately.]

        Pols: Thanks for the new word processor/editor (?) Otherwise, I have so little adventure in my life.

         

        the kind of CD6 voter to whom Coffman is appealing should simply recognize that it's time to elect a Democrat.  – See more at: http://coloradopols.com/diary/46615/new-coffman-writes-checks-his-caucus-cant-cash#comment-521599

         the kind of CD6 voter to whom Coffman is appealing should simply recognize that it's time to elect a Democrat.  – See more at: http://coloradopols.com/diary/46615/new-coffman-writes-checks-his-caucus-cant-cash#comment-521599

        1. Wow, and there they are, my attempts to copy, appearing–after the deed–as if I were trying to link??? Attention, Pols. I love this accidental feature and can see a whole lot of excuses to use it were it to pay attention to my cursor position. It sure was easy: Highlight, Control C, position cursor, Control V. For chrissakes, how did it happen?

          1. That happens to me, too, Larry. Do you happen to be using Google Chrome? I can't even log in if I use another browser. It's very frustrating. I ordinarily copy things to which I respond, but I have given that up. When i try to log in through Yahoo or Bing, I get a pink bar in the field that says "undefined"…WTF?

            This seems to occur only on my laptop, when I am traveling. I am heading home today, from Boston, so I think I will be able to copy when I am using my PC. Pols needs to spend some money to fix some of this stuff.

            1. I sometimes get "undefined" when I log in top right but if I hit "reply" anywhere on a thread and log in there it lets me do it. Sometimes I get undefined and as soon as I click on a diary I see that I'm logged in after all.  I too have been having the best luck with google chrome but the best luck is just being able to log in and function at all. 

              I've pretty much given up copying, cutting, pasting and editing except for just reading my comment over. Things get past me this way but everything is just too complicated now.

              And please no advice on the string of steps I need to take to do  things. Not interested enough to make the effort. If it isn't easy anymore I'm just not going to bother so I'm now issuing a blanket apology for all errors and if I use a piece of info I'll say what site or whatever it's from and leave it at that. Anyone can then google it or not on their own. 

              And, of course, every time I log in, it's a new adventure with things working one way one minute and another the next so who knows? I hate to try anything anymore because it's so iffy and sometimes really weird things happen, like getting greyed out, stuck and having to start over.

              Just now, reading my comment over for errors, I experienced a little jump so it will be interesting seeing if strange things happen to my font size and spacing again. Here we go. Sorry if I left out some letters or words or have some wrong ones… and…. post comment.

  6. Coffman's realized which side his bread's buttered on, is right.  And, no, his caucus won't budge on immigration reform, but he's setting himself up to be able to say "Don't blame me, I tried."  Almost slick, were it not so transparent. C'mon Andrew! You should be able to pound this guy into mulch. Where are you?

    1. No doubt Andrew is keeping his powder dry. He is not yet the chosen D candidate. It isn't evem primary season yet. Plenty of time to make his case when people (besides people like us) are actually paying attention.  And I'm sure his team is doing some work laying a foundation for his campaign.

      1. Hope you are right tabby.

        He was less than a stellar campaigner against Bennet who was also an incumbent.  Hope he learned from that experience.

        1. It was a less than stellar campaign because Andrew  really had no compelling reason to give us to kick out one incumbent D centrist for another, especially one who would vote the same way as the guy who already had the job 99% of the time. There was no good reason for him to primary Bennet other than he was really pissed off that he didn't get the appointment, as he had every right to be, but that wasn't much of reason for anybody but Andrew and his diehard (and often amnesiac) supporters. Maybe he should have been nicer to Governor Ritter. Whatever. 

          This is different. It's not intra-party warfare (at least until somebody else decides to seriously challenge him kind of late in the game as he did Bennet) and he can't possibly have any trouble differentiating himself on substance from Coffman. On substance, there will be a very clear choice.

          It's his job to sell himself as the one on the right side of those substantive issues. Much more doable than convincing a majority of Dem primary voters that there was a dime's worth of substantive difference between him and Bennet, much less enough to fire the incumbent in favor of the new guy. 

  7. Mike Coffman will do a "Buck".  At some point he has to actually "speak" to the 1/3 that will always vote for him.  That is when the other 2/3 figure out what he really is.

  8. The whole article can be read here:

    http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODE/DenverPost/

    Coffman had the advantage of speaking as the elected representative to his constituents.  The Aurora mayor spoke, also.  The group, "Together Colorado," is described as a nonpartisan, multiracial, multifatith community organization.  I found it interesting that the article said that the church was packed on a sunday afternoon.

    It was not, of course, an occasion for a religious ceremony.

    I think this bares watching.  I prepsume that Romanoff could speak to this group, also.  Although, the focus at this meeting may have been on elected representatives.

     

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