Romanoff was term limited from his job as State House Representative after the 2008 state session. In 2010, he tried to become one of Colorado’s US Senators by challenging vulnerable, Democrat incumbent, Michael Bennett in the state primary. He lost.
But, 2010 was a census year. Why does that matter? Because each US census carries with it a prescribed redistricting of each state’s congressional boundaries. (Stop yawning. This will get interesting in a minute.) What this means is that each state redraws the lines around the state to figure out which group of people will be represented by which district. Move a line a few miles and you add more Democrats to a district making it easier to elect a Democrat.
In 2010, that is exactly what they, the Democrats, did in the 6th Colorado Congressional District. The Democrats had their gerrymandering plan, which would make the 6th Congressional District more favorable to electing a Democrat, without harming any of their three incumbent representatives in the next election. The Republicans had their own plan, and the fight was on. It should have been an even fight, because after the 2010 elections the Republicans controlled the House, with Dems retaining control of the Senate. But with liberals in firm control of Colorado’s Supreme Court, the outcome was preordained. The court rubberstamped the Democrat plan with almost no thought and definitely no consideration from the opposition. Just like that, Mike Coffman, the incumbent representative for the Colorado 6th was now in a fight for re-election.
Andrew Romanoff is sure he is just the man for the job. Only Andrew, until recently, didn’t meet the residency requirements for the job. He lived in Denver. The 6th Colorado does not include Denver. So in 2013, just in time to establish the minimum residency time requirement Andrew moved to Aurora.
Ta-dah. Candidate contrived.
Romanoff is an interloper with no ties to the 6th. He was born in Ohio, went to school at Harvard and Yale. He got his law degree in Colorado; in Denver. He represented Denver in the state house and likely only visited the land he now wants represent as he drove through it to the airport.
During those year when he wasn’t fighting for his country, Mike opened a small business that he operated for seventeen years. Here he learned what it takes to meet a payroll and the obstacles the various government agencies put in the way.
If you are counting, that is 1964 to 2000, with the exception of six years in the military and another year abroad, Mike has been a businessman and resident of the district he represents in the US House. After getting elected to the US House of Representatives, Mike still lives as much as he can in his home in the 6th.
Mike has the endorsements of every mayor in the 6th Colorado District. E-v-e-r-y o-n-e. Aurora’s Steve Hogan, Thornton’s Heidi Williams, Brighton’s Dick McLean, Centennial’s Cathy Noon, Greenwood Village’s Ron Rakowsky, and Littleton’s Phil Cernanec all give their stamp of approval to Mike Coffman.
The National Federation of Independent Business-Colorado, the leading small business association endorses Mike Coffman.
The Colorado Springs Gazette endorses Mike Coffman in this glowing editorial.
Mike Coffman has fought hard for veterans rights, which comes in handy as the 6th Congressional district includes Buckley Air National Guard base.
Who is endorsing Andrew Romanoff? The Aurora Sentinel is. That would be the liberal weekly paper covering Aurora which endorsed John Kerry in 2004, Barrack Obama in 2008, and not being able to see what a lousy job he had done, endorsed Obama again 2012. I see a trend.
Who else? Back in July the Aurora Sentinel published a letter from a large group of Hispanic politicians and community activists. The just of the letter was that they support Romanoff because he supports the Democrat’s Senate version of immigration reform. That boils down to amnesty, after you let it run its course.
Andrew Romanoff would be another Obama rubber-stamping sycophant. He has endorsed ObamaCare and will not give a public opinion on the Keystone pipeline. I think we all know which was he is leaning.
This is not what the country needs, Colorado needs, or the 6th Colorado District (my district) needs. I endorse Mike Coffman, too.