September 20, 2016 10:13 AM UTC

Carroll Punches Trump/Coffman. Hard.

• 9 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As the Aurora Sentinel reports today, Democratic congressional candidate Morgan Carroll is out with a new TV spot, a shot directly at one of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s most controversial moments of verbal diarrhea–and by extension, whether incumbent GOP Rep. Mike Coffman likes it or not, her opponent:

The gloves have officially come off in the race for Colorado’s 6th Congressional District seat in Aurora, and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump gets a hard left hook from state Sen. Morgan Carroll in a political TV ad being released today.

The one-two punch then aims for Carroll’s Republican incumbent opponent, Congressman Mike Coffman…

This round is over Trump’s infamous public slight to a disabled reporter. In the short TV ad, Carroll says her late father suffered from Parkinson’s Disease and that spurred her career in fighting for disabled workers.

The ad highlights a notorious clip of Trump imitating and mocking New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who is disabled. Carroll’s campaign ad then shifts right to Coffman, who Carroll says tacitly approves of Trump’s antics because he hasn’t outright denounced his remarks and his candidacy.

As you can imagine, Team Coffman is outraged, outraged that Carroll isn’t buying Coffman’s Trump triangulation:

5/ Mike Coffman has made it clear – he has and will stand-up to Trump or Hillary when it is the right thing to do for America. #COpolitics

— Team Coffman (@TeamCoffman2016) September 20, 2016

And the reason is simple, as we’ve discussed in this space countless times: Coffman’s “distance” from Trump is a contrivance.

[S]ince Coffman’s never said that he won’t vote for Trump, Democrats continue to taunt him on social media, and now with this ad. [Pols emphasis]

It goes both ways, however. Carroll has backed Hillary Clinton for president, something the Coffman campaign and Republicans tie to her with the same fervor.

“Donald Trump is running against the most corrupt candidate for president in modern political history,” Coffman told Aurora Sentinel reporter Rachel Sapin earlier this month in response to Trump meeting with Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto, and then flying to Arizona. There he gave a speech essentially inciting his base in regards to building a wall between the United States and Mexico. “Richard Nixon has nothing on Hillary Clinton. But Trump’s obsession with a hard-edge immigration policy is like a slammed door in the face of millions of voters. His meeting with the President of Mexico was one step forward. His Arizona speech was three steps back.”

Carroll campaign officials say Coffman is being disingenuous about being critical of Trump, having previously backed similar positions on immigration and other issues.

There’s a reason why Coffman is attacking Donald Trump for the same hard-line stance on immigration that he himself campaigned on for years. It’s also the reason why Coffman can’t have a sustained debate on the issue. The reason is that Coffman has spent most of his time in Congress hopelessly at odds with the majority of his constituents, and he can’t defend his record beyond the most superficial questions.

At the same time, Coffman can’t make the only commitment that matters with the election fast approaching: a pledge to not vote for Donald Trump. To do so would alienate too many Republican voters Coffman needs to win re-election. That is all the opening Carroll needs to plausibly assert, as she does in this ad, that Coffman “won’t stand up to Trump.”

And seriously, Richard Nixon? That’s just a talk-radio crock.

There’s no question that, in light of how undeniably effective Team Coffman has been at arguing reporters into a subject change, Carroll needs to be much more aggressive on calling out Coffman’s long “Trumplike” record. For Democrats, this latest ad is a welcome sign she is moving in that direction–and there’s a lot more material where this came from.