Declaring that “60 is the new 40,” U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman welcomed some 150 guests to his birthday party on Saturday at the Summit Steakhouse in Aurora. “I hope that’s true, I really hope that’s true,” he said with a smile before dropping to the floor and doing 100 pushups at the urging of the crowd.

The Aurora Republican and his supporters were celebrating more than the sexagenarian’s birthday at the annual fundraiser. Coffman racked up a win last fall by a large margin in what had been billed as the most competitive congressional race in the country, adding to an unbroken string of Coffman victories stretching back to the 1980s, when he first won election to the Legislature.

“The last campaign was a very, very difficult race,” he said. “In terms of the House Republicans, I was the No. 1 target in the country.”

Coffman defeated former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff by almost 9 points in the race to represent the Aurora-based 6th Congressional District, which is nearly evenly divided among Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters. The contest drew national attention, with Coffman even landing among the finalists in HBO comedian Bill Maher’s “Flip a District” campaign aimed at unseating a Republican member of Congress. (Two years earlier, former state Rep. Joe Miklosi, the relatively underfunded and little-known Democratic nominee, came within 2 points of unseating Coffman.)

“Andrew Romanoff was an extraordinary candidate, who moved into the district to run – I never let him forget that,” Coffman said. “But it was a tough race, it was a spirited race,” he added, thanking supporters for their help.

Turning attention to next year’s election, Coffman warned that the unexpectedly wide margin in last year’s election doesn’t mean the incumbent can take anything for granted.

“It is going to be very challenging,” he said. “In a presidential year, it’s very different than a midterm. There’s just going to be a bigger turnout of Democrats in a battleground district in a battleground state. It’s just going to be tough. Just because we had a big win (last year) doesn’t automatically mean we’re going to get a big win this time. It’s going to take a lot of shoe leather, a lot of effort on the part of everybody.”

While a Democratic challenger has yet to officially emerge, The Colorado Statesman has learned that Centennial City Council member Rebecca McClellan is exploring a run against Coffman following the decision by another potential candidate, state Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, to pass on the bid.

“Rebecca would be a great candidate if she runs, she’s a solid candidate who has a strong, moderate track record,” a Democratic insider told The Statesman this week. “When Rhonda stepped out, Rebecca emerged as someone who can do it. She has the time, she has a strong base of people who know her, and she has ties in the business and education communities.”

Fields had been considering the run as recently as late last month but told Democrats at the party’s state central committee meeting on Feb. 28 that she was instead planning to run for the Aurora state Senate seat that will be left open after term-limited Senate Minority Leader Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, steps down. State Rep. Su Ryden, D-Aurora, has also announced plans to run for the Senate District 29 seat.

Lori Eddlemon, Democratic chair of the 6th CD, suggested that there could be other potential candidates in the wings. “I can tell you we have a couple of candidates that have shown interest in running and we are fully confident that we will pick up this seat in 2016,” she told The Statesman on Wednesday.

McClellan won her city council seat in 2009 and then lost a race against Republican Nancy Sharpe for a seat on the Arapahoe County Commission in 2010. She has a background in residential real estate and mortgage lending and founded a small business in the medical field. In her tenure on city council, she has specialized in local economic development and environmental policy, according to the Centennial website.

A Coffman spokesman reiterated that the Army and Marines veteran is gearing up for another tough campaign for the targeted seat.

“We know that Nancy Pelosi is dialing-up prospective candidates, and we know that her political minions at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are in full ramp-up as well,” Coffman spokesman Tyler Sandberg told The Statesman. “Whether or not this is the No. 1 race in America again, rest assured, we will be ready. Whomever it is that finds themselves on the ballot against Mike Coffman, they better lace their shoes real tight and be ready for the fight of a lifetime.”

Sandberg added, “Rest is not in Mike Coffman’s vocabulary, in English or Spanish, and his trouncing of Andrew Romanoff doesn’t change that one bit. Based on the stellar turnout for his birthday party, it appears his team of supporters don’t plan on taking it easy either.”

Coffman wasn’t taking it easy at his birthday party, either.

“Now that I’m 40 – since 60 is the new 40 – I’m doing my pushups every day,” he said with a grin before blowing out the candles on the cake. “I’m doing 500 every day, 10 sets of 50, spread throughout the day. People think I’m crazy, I do them at the airport, while I’m waiting for a plane, I do them between votes, I do them between meetings, in my office, between hearings, I do them everywhere.”

When supporters responded with a suggestion that Coffman do a few sets there on stage, he obliged, counting them out and only appearing to strain at all near the end.

Jumping up and clapping his hands, Coffman said, “I only have 100 more pushups to do today to meet my quota.”

Coffman briefly addressed the raging controversy over construction of the Veterans Administration hospital in Aurora. The project, originally pegged at $328 million, has seen its estimated cost balloon to $1.73 billion since breaking ground three years ago. Congress has only appropriated $800 million for the complex, sited at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center.

“I’m going to fly back to Washington, D.C., tomorrow, and I’m going to work on the Veterans hospital,” Coffman told the crowd. “I just can’t believe it would be so mismanaged, that there would be such incredible cost over-runs on that project. I’m going to come up with a solution that’s going to hold those responsible accountable, that’s going to strip the construction-management authority away from them and give it to the Army Corps of Engineers. And that money isn’t going to come out of the taxpayers, it’s going to come out of the hide of the Veterans Administration. I’m going to make that happen.”

The Denver Post reported earlier this month that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has hired Jennifer Ridder as the regional director. Ridder, daughter of RBI Strategies and Research founders Rick Ridder and Joannie Braden, was deputy campaign manager for U.S. Sen. Mark Udall’s unsuccessful reelection effort last year. She told The Post’s political blog that it’s a top DCCC priority to recruit a “good candidate” to challenge Coffman.

? Ernest@coloradostatesman.com