Immigration

Incoming Aurora mayor Mike Coffman says job won’t be a launching pad to higher office


Mike Coffman, coming off a bruising congressional re-election loss in November 2018, took barely a three-month hiatus from politics before announcing a run for mayor of Aurora.

Last week, it finally became clear that he’d won the close race, besting runner-up Omar Montgomery, president of the city’s chapter of the NAACP, by 215 votes. He will be sworn in Dec. 2.

For those thinking the 64-year-old Marine veteran and longtime Aurora resident will now use his position leading Colorado’s third-largest city to stoke and revive greater political ambitions — like perhaps a run for the U.S. Senate against Michael Bennet in 2022 — Coffman says they should think again.

“I don’t see myself getting back into partisan politics,” he told The Denver Post in an interview. “At the end of the day, my legacy will be as the mayor of the city of Aurora.”

Denver Post file

In this 1998 file photo, soon-to-be Colorado state treasurer Mike Coffman stands on the Colorado Senate flooring holding a picture of himself when he was a Marine captain during Desert Storm.

He’s not the young man he was 31 years ago, when he embarked on his political career by winning a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives.

“I’m 64 years old — that’s the reality of it,” Coffman said.

But politicians have declared many an intention only to change plans upon reflection or cajoling by others. Dick Wadhams, a former Colorado Republican state chairman who managed former Gov. Bill Owens’ campaign 20 years ago, said he doesn’t expect Coffman to aim for Bennet’s seat in three years.

“But if he did decide to run for the Senate, he would be formidable,” Wadhams said. “He is the kind who of guy who throws himself into the challenge in front of him, and I think he will flourish as mayor.”

Political analyst Eric Sondermann said Coffman’s mayoral victory this week “can be a re-launch (into politics), if he wants it.”

Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

U.S. Representative Mike Coffman, middle, joins in a Sunday service at Addis Kidan Evangelical Church in Aurora on Nov. 4, 2018. Coffman joined in the service to help get out the vote during a last minute campaign push before the election.

But Coffman, who is considered a moderate Republican, may have difficulty operating within a party that has turned hard right in recent years, Sondermann said.

“There’s still room for moderate Republicans, but the speed bumps in his party get bigger every day,” he said.

As the five-term representative for Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, Coffman at times clashed with President Donald Trump. Three years ago, he called for candidate Trump to depart the 2016 presidential race after the revelation about crude comments the New York billionaire made about women a decade earlier.

After Coffman lost his seat to political newcomer Jason Crow a year ago, Trump snubbed him — telling reporters “Too bad Mike” — for distancing himself from the mercurial president during his congressional run.

“His biggest problem is the Republican Party,” said John Straayer, professor emeritus of political science at Colorado State University, noting the conservative pivot the party has made under Trump. “The problem with the Republican Party is you have to get nominated before you can run in the general election.”

General elections themselves are becoming more problematic for Republicans as population growth has made Colorado bluer and more diverse. Voters in 2018 made it resoundingly clear at the ballot box that they favored Democrats.

That doesn’t mean the doors are closed to Republicans eyeing statewide office, Wadhams said — they’re just a little more difficult to prop open.

Denver Post file

Congressman Mike Coffman led a town-hall style meeting about health care in Castle Rock on Aug. 17, 2009. He listened to the specific concerns of a small group of people after the meeting broke up.



READ NEWS SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.