Aurora has never before had a mayor quite like Mike Coffman. And it’s not just because of the lifelong Auroran’s extraordinary resume: U.S. Marine Corps Reserve officer; longtime state legislator; Colorado state treasurer; Colorado secretary of state; five-term U.S. congressman.

It’s also because he speaks his mind, does what he thinks is right and blazes his own trails – whether or not it’s popular with the press or the political class.

Like the time a couple of years ago when Coffman, two years into his first term at the helm of city government, went undercover for a week among Aurora’s substantial homeless population on the streets to do some investigative reporting of his own. He affirmed, among other things, that many of the chronic street dwellers who refuse shelter and insist on pitching tents in public – blighting urban landscapes; fomenting petty and sometimes violent crime; panhandling intersections, fouling parks, playgrounds and other public spaces – are in fact drug and alcohol addicts rather than victims of economic circumstance.

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Most rank-and-file Aurora residents wouldn’t quibble in the least with Coffman’s take. But the state’s homeless-services establishment harrumphed with indignation at a metro mayor speaking his mind like that. Coffman’s frank assessment was in fact refreshing – and spoke a truth that needed to be told in hopes of reshaping public policy on homelessness. Coffman stood his ground despite taking heat from those who claimed to hold the moral high ground.

That’s leadership – unflinching, independent thinking – and Colorado’s third-largest city has benefited from it in the four years since Coffman took office, in 2019. Which is why Aurora voters ought to reelect Coffman on this fall’s mail ballot to a second term in the mayor’s office.

Coffman in fact has helped pull his city back from the brink amid an epic crime wave; an epidemic of overdoses, and an inundation of hardcore homeless who are drawn to the metro area by its reputation as lax on drugs and generous with handouts.

The mayor’s dogged efforts to roll back those urban woes were stymied his first two years by a City Council majority of self-described socialists – yes, they’re a thing again – who sought to coddle criminals, house the addicts with no questions asked, and embrace drug use. That changed two years ago, with the election of a new, back-to-basics council majority of pragmatists who wanted City Hall to quit tilting at windmills and instead tackle the real issues facing Aurora. That included fighting crime; realistically addressing homelessness by avoiding the “housing first” approach; pumping up economic development; tackling backlogged street improvements, and streamlining local business regulations that could smother job creation.

That agenda is helping turn the corner for Aurora. Indeed, the city has been setting the pace lately for local government in the metro area – and setting an example for its next-door neighbor, Denver. Aurora City Hall has refocused on giving residents real value for their tax dollars, and Coffman has been central to that effort. He’s tough on crime, supports the city’s dedicated police and firefighters, is realistic about the homeless, and champions Aurora’s job creators – its business community and especially its small businesses.

Coffman has embraced a winning formula to get Aurora back on track and keep it there.

Reelect Mike Coffman for Aurora mayor.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board