With more than $11 million in fall television ads already reserved, the race between Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman and his challenger, Democratic state Sen. Morgan Carroll, promises to live up to its billing as one of the hardest-fought – or at least most expensive – congressional contests in the country this year. And that’s without any reservations by one of the candidates or prominent outside groups expected to spend heavily in the battle for the 6th Congressional District.

The Coffman campaign made its initial reservation – $1,208,340 for five week’s worth of broadcast ads, according to a campaign spokeswoman – last week, primarily selecting what the campaign calls “prime TV real estate,” while promising a much larger TV buy in coming months.

The Carroll campaign, for its part, hasn’t made its reservations yet, but campaign manager Jennifer Koch Donovan said that’s just around the corner.

“Now that we know who the Democratic nominee for president will be, Carroll for Colorado will be making television ad reservations soon and we are excited to get our message out to the voters of the 6th Congressional District,” Donovan told The Colorado Statesman on Wednesday.

Democrat Hillary Clinton clinched the nomination this week with a combination of late primary wins and commitments from unpledged delegates, the Associated Press reported. Republican Donald Trump secured his party’s nomination two weeks ago.

The National Republican Campaign Committee has reserved $3,648,935 worth of cable and broadcast ads in the district for the last seven weeks before the election, according to media trackers. (The NRCC is also spending around $600,000 in the Denver market on the 3rd Congressional District race between U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, a Cortez Republican, and former state Sen. Gail Schwartz, his Democratic challenger.)

Its counterpart across the aisle, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has reserved $3,249,909 worth of cable and broadcast ads in the final six weeks before the election. The House Majority PAC, a super PAC devoted to electing House Democrats, has reserved $3,109,668 in broadcast and cable ads during the final four weeks.

All told, that’s $11,216,852 in ad reservations, with the anticipated spending by party committees and the super PAC already surpassing the amounts outside groups poured into the 6th CD race two years ago, when Coffman faced challenger Andrew Romanoff, a former speaker of the Colorado House.

“By all outward appearances, Morgan Carroll has outsourced her campaign to the various Super PACs of the woman who recruited her – Nancy Pelosi,” said Cinamon Watson, a spokeswoman for the Coffman campaign, referencing the House Democratic leader and former speaker. “Which isn’t a total surprise – Morgan Carroll is a virtual clone of Nancy Pelosi. Partisan. Bitter. Divisive.”

Watson maintained that there’s “an obvious downside for Morgan Carroll’s strange decision to hand her campaign off to Pelosi – under federal election rules, Nancy Pelosi’s Super PAC will pay two to three times more for airtime than Mike’s candidate campaign.”

She added that Coffman wouldn’t match Pelosi’s spending but intends to stay competitive. “We’ll spend smarter, and we’ll hustle and scrap just like we did two years ago and the two years before that.”

Donovan suggested that it was the Republican incumbent who had hitched his wagon to a divisive figure.

“Mike Coffman and the NRCC know they’re in trouble come November,” she told The Statesman. “With a candidate like Mike Coffman, who would rather align himself with Donald Trump and anti-immigrant organizations, is willing to put seniors’ and college students’ economic security in jeopardy and wants to defund Planned Parenthood, Republicans know that Colorado voters are ready for new representation in Washington.”

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com