April 13, 2017 01:41 PM UTC

Coffman's Brutal Night Continues To Reverberate

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• by: Colorado Pols

Last night’s raucous town hall held by Rep. Mike Coffman on the CU medical school campus in Aurora was by far the most intense grilling Coffman has ever faced from his constituents–certainly the most intense he has ever faced on live video. Although some media reports have focused on Coffman’s comment in response to the final question of the night, in which Coffman said that White House press secretary Sean Spicer “needs to go,” Politico’s Rachael Bade covers the larger story of Coffman’s damaging answers to his constituents’ questions about the future of health care reform:

Nearly every other constituent brought up health care at a town hall here on the outskirts of Denver on Wednesday night, in one of the most competitive House districts in the country.

But not a single one did it to thank Rep. Mike Coffman for backing the House GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. Instead, dozens of local residents — Democrats and Republicans — pummeled the Colorado Republican for supporting legislation they said would harm their community…

Coffman put his political career on the line several weeks ago when he threw his support behind Speaker Paul Ryan’s health care bill, legislation with a 17 percent approval rating. Ryan ultimately pulled the bill from the floor amid a collapse in GOP support — but not before Coffman went on record as a supporter.

Now, the five-term centrist, one of the most vulnerable members in the House GOP Conference, is paying for it in his district, which Hillary Clinton last year carried by 9 points.

“I voted for you because I thought you’d be a leader,” said one angry constituent. “I don’t see you leading.”

CNN’s MJ Lee:

One man who identified himself as a registered Republican stood up at Wednesday’s town hall to say he was “shocked” to learn of Coffman’s support for wholesale repeal of Obamacare.

“That’s not the way we do things here in Colorado. The ACA is the law of the land,” the man said. “What will you do to revise, strengthen and bolster Obamacare?”

Phil Laxar of Centennial said Coffman’s public support for the Republican proposal to repeal Obamacare was the single issue that disturbed him most.

“Our district voted strongly against Donald Trump and while Rep. Coffman was reelected, it seems like he is supporting Trump’s policies instead of representing his constituents,” Laxar, who voted for Clinton, told CNN.

Overall, Coffman completely failed–not just to win over the crowd, but even to convince the crowd that he was engaging their questions about health care reform in good faith. In response to complicated and pointed questions about Medicaid and benefits provided by the Affordable Care Act, Coffman mostly gave vague piecemeal answers that did nothing to shed light on his actual stand. And when he did say something specific, it was in support of block grants, high-risk pools, and other old hat GOP health care policy prescriptions that the crowd booed into silence.

Had Coffman not made his remarks about Sean Spicer’s Holocaust gaffe, which national reporters found timely and steered a lot of coverage away from everything else that happened at this town hall, the narrative for Coffman would undoubtedly have been worse. Even with the Spicer diversion, though, Coffman was hurt badly by the overwhelmingly negative response he got from his constituents. It was all filmed. It’s not going to ever go away.

This kind of voter hostility is new for Coffman, mostly because he has avoided public accountability to the district’s residents ever since redistricting in 2011 took away his Tom Tancredo constituency and replaced it with culturally diverse Aurora. The ability to stand on stage and absorb punishment does not oblige voters who don’t like him to suddenly respect him.

It’s just more reasons not to like him.