Learn more about Mike Coffman and his interest in working for the 6th Congressional District of Colorado.
10/10/08 - By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News
A year after the Iraq invasion, when support for the war was still high, Marine Corps Maj. Mike Coffman confided that he was uneasy about the strategy.
"I didn't see Iraq at that time in the post-Gulf War environment as a real threat to its neighbors," Coffman recalled of that 2004 conversation. "I thought Saddam Hussein was focused on his own survival and in a secular Iraq. I thought his agenda was very different from al-Qaida's agenda."
Today, Coffman is Colorado's secretary of state and the Republican candidate for the 6th Congressional District seat. He fought in the Gulf War and returned to Iraq in 2005 to help organize elections.
Coffman frequently cites his differences with the Bush administration over the conduct of the Iraq war.
"I understand the capabilities and limitations of military power, and I'll be quite frank with you, I (believe) that this administration's post-invasion strategy has got to be one of the most incompetently planned operations in the annals of U.S. conflicts," Coffman told a Castle Pines North audience during a debate earlier this week.
The 6th District includes Douglas and Elbert counties, plus parts of Arapahoe, Jefferson and Park counties.
Coffman would seem to be a favorite in the district, where no Democrat has won since the seat was created after the 1980 census.
But his campaign is taking nothing for granted, said campaign manager Dustin Zvonik.
Coffman has debated Democrat Hank Eng several times and volunteers are working the phones.
Coffman's differences with the president on the Iraq war haven't hurt him in this conservative district.
He defeated three opponents to win the GOP nomination in August. His remarks about the war to the Castle Pines North audience brought applause.
Coffman, 53, was born at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., where his father was a career Army enlisted man. The family moved to Colorado in 1964 when Harold Coffman was assigned to Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center.
Coffman dropped out of Aurora Central High School at 17 to join the Army. He earned a high school diploma through the Army, then earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado in 1979 before enlisting in the Marines.
Coffman was in the rental housing business for 17 years. but sold his interests in 2000.
He served in the state House and Senate, representing Aurora. He was elected state treasurer in 1998 and secretary of state in 2006.
Coffman often took on difficult issues. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, he led the effort to bring Colorado's complicated human services programs into compliance with welfare reform passed by Congress in 1996.
As treasurer, he tangled with Gov. Bill Owens, a fellow Republican, over which funds the state could tap during the economic downturn earlier in this decade.
He also angered Longmont school officials who, facing insolvency, applied for a state bailout. The fiscally conservative Coffman demanded heavy belt-tightening in return for the loan.
Coffman said the United States can't withdraw from Iraq precipitously, leaving it to become a failed state. But U.S. troops can't stay indefinitely, he said.
He vows to oppose future efforts to involve the military in nation-building.
"I understand enough to challenge any administration, whether Republican or Democrat on defense policy," he said. "I've lost friends in combat and I know what that's like, but I don't think there's a lot of people in Congress that understand the cost of war."
Mike Coffman:
Age: 53
Born: Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
Residence: Aurora
Political biography: Colorado House of Representatives, 1989-1994; state senator, 1995-1998; state treasurer, 1999-2006; secretary of state, 2007-present
Web site: coffmanforcongress.com
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