Colorado Politics

Ads thanking Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman for tax vote to air this week

Next Wednesday, ads supporting the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will start airing on metro Denver TV, and those ads will encourage viewers to thank U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman for his votes on the law.

According to the Washington Post, the ads are coming from American Action Network and will air in 23 congressional districts. Coffman, an Aurora Republican, is the only one on the buy list from Colorado, out of the four Colorado Republican members of the House who voted for the bill in December.

The conservative American Action Network is spending $10 million on the ad campaign. The non-profit is a “dark money” group, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). That means AAN doesn’t have to disclose its donors.

AAN has close ties to House Republican leaders, according to the Post.

Coffman’s seat is believed to be one of the most endangered in the country for the upcoming fall elections. According to FiveThirtyEight.com, in 2017 Coffman voted 94.9 percent of the time for measures in line with positions held by the president.

Coffman has managed to win re-election even in years when Democrats were expected to do well. In 2016, he handily defeated former Democratic Sen. Morgan Carroll of Aurora by 8 points in a congressional district that voted for Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton over eventual winner and Republican Donald Trump.

The ad buy is also an attempt to convince taxpayers the bill is good for them, despite concerns that its chief beneficiaries are corporations and the wealthy. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said after the final vote that “[I]f we can’t sell this to the American people we ought to go into another line of work.”

Whether reminding voters that Coffman voted for the law is a good idea remains to be seen. The day before President Trump signed it into law (on Dec. 22), the Gallup organization said the bill had a 29 percent approval rating and 56 percent disapproval.

Ian Silverii of ProgressNow Colorado pointed out that Sen. Cory Gardner of Yuma had said donors were furious that Republicans had not fulfilled their promises, and threatened to withhold campaign dollars until there was action on health care and/or tax reform.

“Now they’ve finally accomplished something” and being rewarded with campaign spending, Silverii said on Sunday.

 
Jack Dempsey

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