Republicans wasted no time taking aim at state Senate Minority Leader Morgan Carroll when news broke this week that the Aurora Democrat is weighing a run against U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman in the swingy 6th Congressional District.

Deploying the adjective “liberal” multiple times – including three times as part of the “ultra-liberal” epithet – the National Republican Congressional Committee blasted Carroll as, well, a liberal lawmaker in a release on Thursday.

“After years of championing far-left policies in the Colorado State Senate, it is clear Morgan Carroll’s ultra-liberal positions are out of step with the priorities of everyday Coloradans,” said NRCC spokesman Zach Hunter. “From raising taxes on Colorado families to cheerleading Hickenlooper’s disastrous gun grab, Carroll has shown she is more interested in pushing her far-left ideology than helping Colorado families.”

Although Carroll’s name has been bandied about as a potential challenger to Coffman for years, it wasn’t anything but speculation until The Denver Post first reported on Wednesday that she’s off to D.C. to meet with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Emily’s List, which helps raise money for women candidates. Carroll didn’t comment on the possibility.

Our sources among the Democrats who have been working to recruit a candidate in the battleground district laid out the criteria recently, and Carroll checks off several of the boxes. The candidate they’ve been seeking would be an Aurora resident and a woman – unlike the last two challengers, former state Rep. Joe Miklosi and former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, both men from Denver who transplanted to the district – and would be able to raise the big bucks. Our sources said a military background would be ideal – Coffman, in case you hadn’t heard, is a veteran of both Iraq wars – but wasn’t essential.

Even though there isn’t an official challenger yet, the Democrats haven’t been holding their fire on Coffman, either, going so far as to target Coffman’s bona fides with the troops, no small contingent of the 6th CD’s electorate.

The DCCC poured mailers and digital ads into military households in the district this week, targeting Coffman “for voting to delay critical protections for U.S. troops from predatory lenders,” according to a release.

“By voting to delay protections for our troops from predatory lenders, Congressman Coffman made it clear that he’ll go to bat for payday lenders and special interests, even if it means turning his back on service members and their families,” said DCCC spokesman Matt Thornton. “Perhaps he thought he could get away with voting against our troops during a late-night committee meeting, but we have been using this recess to hold him accountable for his shamefully wrong priorities.”

The House Armed Services Committee vote – taken at 4 a.m. late last week – was over whether to delay Department of Defense rules governing payday lenders. Those voting against the delay said the rules have been delayed and studied enough and that those supporting the delay – that would include Coffman – are making it easier for predatory lenders to target service members. But those voting for the delay argued that the proposed rules could go too far and make it harder for troops to get access to loans.