June 18, 2015 01:23 PM UTC

BREAKING: Cynthia Coffman Declines 2016 Senate Bid

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: 9NEWS Brandon Rittiman reporting, Cynthia Coffman sticks to her story about the timing of her decision not to run for the U.S. Senate:

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman confirmed to 9NEWS Thursday she will not run for US Senate, saying it’s a decision she made before this week’s news of her participation in an attempt to oust the new state GOP chairman.

“I have said it repeatedly to anyone who will listen,” Coffman said in an email to 9NEWS. “The party knows it; I told the chair many weeks ago.”

As further evidence that the decision was made prior to this week’s public ruckus over party leadership, Coffman said she informed another Colorado media outlet of her political plans before the dust-up occurred.

Bottom line: it’s certainly possible that Mrs. Coffman told a few reporters or fellow GOP insiders that she wouldn’t run for the U.S. Senate next year–but it really doesn’t matter that much. If Coffman wants to tell the world how no, she really did decide not to run before she started blackmailing people, she’s free to do so. That won’t change the perceptions, and if anything could drive more attention to the story.

Regardless of the timing of Mrs. Coffman’s decision, there’s an easy reason she felt the need to go public about the Senate race today: the same reason she is getting national press right now to begin with. And it’s not a reason that makes her, or fellow Colorado Republicans, look in any way good. Original post follows.

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We can’t call it a surprise after the disastrous week Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman has had in the wake of nationally publicized allegations that she participated in the alleged attempted blackmail of Colorado GOP chairman Steve House, but as National Review’s Alexis Levinson reports:

Colorado attorney general Cynthia Coffman will not run in the state’s upcoming Senate race, she tells National Review.

“I’m not running,” she said. “I thought about it for half a minute. I like being in Colorado, and I love my job. This is where I want to be.”

Cynthia Coffman made headlines earlier this week for her role in what has been described as an attempted coup against the Colorado GOP leadership. The chairman of the party, Steve House, has said that Coffman called a meeting with him where she and two other Colorado Republicans asked him to resign. House has alleged they threatened to publicly accuse him of having an extramarital affair if he did not do so. Coffman, in a statement released Wednesday evening, denied making any such threats. House ultimately declined to resign.

Colorado Republicans say Coffman’s prominent role in what has become a messy, public dispute could damage her political future… [Pols emphasis]

In today’s story, Cynthia Coffman claims to have reached this decision before the scandal over the attempted shakedown of House dominated local political headlines this week, but that’s not consistent with what we were hearing as recently as Monday. Chatter among Republicans in the last couple of weeks about a Cynthia Coffman run for the U.S. Senate was much too widespread to be accidental, and ramped up right after state Sen. Ellen Roberts faceplanted in the national media explaining her shifting views on reproductive choice. Another possible 2016 Senate candidate, Arapahoe County DA George Brauchler, committed a major social media gaffe earlier this month that helped create space for Mrs. Coffman to get in the race.

As of today? Back to the drawing board, Colorado Republicans. Cynthia Coffman’s brief time in the limelight is over.