October 08, 2013 10:02 AM UTC

Coffman Buckles--Now Backs "Clean" Continuing Resolution

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: FOX 31's Eli Stokols:

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, reversed course Tuesday and vowed to support a clean continuing resolution to fund the government, breaking ranks with an obstinate House GOP bloc that has insisted on changes to Obamacare in exchange for passing a CR to end the ongoing shutdown…

Last week, Coffman told FOX31 Denver he was adhering to the House GOP position and that he was comfortable with the position even if it eventually hurt his reelection chances.

But Tuesday morning, in an Op-Ed piece published in several community newspapers, Coffman reversed course, revealing yet another crack in the House GOP unity around the unrealistic strategy of holding the government hostage until Democrats agreed to the de-funding of the Affordable Care Act.

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As the Denver Post's Allison Sherry reports:

Rep. Mike Coffman said Tuesday he will urge his GOP colleagues to support a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the federal government and end the current standoff in Washington.

Coffman, R-Aurora, is a critical voice in the debate because there is now a critical mass of Republican votes to pass a funding measure that does not dismantle or defund the Affordable Care Act — a proposal rejected by the U.S. Senate that led to the current shutdown…

“I have done my best to delay, defund and dismantle all or parts of Obamacare because I believe that much of it will be harmful to this country in the long run,” Coffman wrote. “However, the debate over attaching Obamacare to a spending bill must end and I will argue before my colleagues in the House that we need to pass a 'clean' spending bill to immediately reopen the government.”

Obviously this marks a major shift from Rep. Mike Coffman's position just a few days ago, when he held firm with the strategy to shut down the government to forestall implementation of the Affordable Care Act, saying "this is a negotiation" and demanding further concessions such as the repeal of the "Obamacare" medical device tax. Since that time, Democrats have singled out Coffman for paid-media pressure, and Coffman's hometown Aurora Sentinel weighed in with a blistering editorial condemning Coffman's "abandonment of good judgment." The latest polling shows Republicans taking heavy damage, to the extent that even safe-seat Rep. Doug Lamborn sees "the writing on the wall." Coffman is broadly considered one of the nation's most vulnerable incumbent Republicans going into 2014, so all sides were watching to see how long he would hold the hard line before cracking.

Answer: eight days.