Congressman Mike Coffman and his conservative allies are taking no chances in his re-election effort in CD6 this year. Raising big dollars and putting up TV ads nine months in advance of the general election, they are employing a strategy similar to Nevada's special election in the 2nd Congressional district last year.
During the special election to replace Congressman Dean Heller, who was appointed to a vacant US Senate seat, Republicans spent heavily early on in the race to tie the Democrat Kate Marshall to Barack Obama and boost Mark Amodei's image. It worked well, with Amodei going on to win by 22 points.
Here in Colorado, Congressman Coffman and his supporters are taking a similar approach.
Recently, the Chamber of Commerce began running ads in support of Coffman's opposition to Obamacare and big government in general. A source tracking ad buys tells the Peak it was for $62,000 on cable. The source did not know the total for the broadcast buy. That's a nice chunk of change for positive ads so early in the cycle.
Check out the ad:
Coffman himself is raising big dollars, with nearly a million cash on hand at the end of 2011.
Politico's David Catanese reported this morning that House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy is also stepping up to fundraise for Coffman, telling recipients of the fundraising email that if Coffman loses the Republican majority could be in peril.
While that is clearly just fundraising language intended to fire up conservatives — no neutral observer sees Coffman as threatened by his joke opponents — it is further proof that conservatives are employing the go big, go early approach to Coffman's race.
The difference between Nevada's special election and Coffman's race is that, as we just said, Coffman's opponents are a joke.
After CD6 candidate state Rep. Joe Miklosi (D-Denver) put up another lackluster fundraising haul in the 4th quarter, Democrat Party mouthpiece Colorado Pols said "We can't fault Miklosi for trying, but his campaign is all but over now."
Coffman’s other potential opponent, Democrat Dr. Perry Haney, just dropped out of the race this afternoon.
Guess the strategy of go big, go early is working.