In early August, Republican Rep. Mike Coffman ran an attention-grabbing commercial where he pledged to stand up to either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. However, Coffman had no exit strategy and he soon found himself in trouble when he admitted that he hadn’t actually ruled out voting for Trump. Colorado’s 6th District is the type of well-off and well-educated area where Trump smells like electoral rat poison, so we know why Coffman is trying to distance himself from his party’s nominee. But Democrat Morgan Carroll is trying to make sure that he fails.
Carroll is out with a new commercial explicitly linking the top of the ticket to the bottom. The narrator argues that Trump wants to defund Planned Parenthood, while saying that Coffman actually did vote to defund it six times. The spot then shows a clip of Trump declaring that immigrants are “bringing drugs” and “they’re rapists,” before the narrator says Coffman told immigrants to “pull out a dictionary.” And no, that Coffman quote was not taken out of context. The ad also assails Coffman for saying nothing when Trump mocked a disabled reporter.
But perhaps the most dangerous part of the ad for Coffman comes at the end, when the narrator points out that Trump has questioned Barack Obama’s birthplace before an audio clip plays of Coffman says that the president is “just not an American.” That’s a reference to a 2012 incident where Coffman shoved both feet in his mouth and bit down hard:
"I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don't know that. But I do know this, that in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an American."
Coffman went on to claim he misspoke and said he apologized, but he added, “I don't believe the president shares my belief in American Exceptionalism.” Some apology.
Coffman did win re-election 48-46 that year as Obama was carrying his seat 52-47 so these stories, while problematic, weren’t quite bad enough to sink him. However, Carroll has much more money to make her case against Coffman than did Joe Miklosy, Coffman’s opponent in 2012. And Carroll, of course, also has something else Miklosy didn’t have: Donald Trump.
This particular spot has the right idea, particularly in its usage of actual footage of Trump and Coffman. However, it feels a little overstuffed, and future ads could benefit from focusing on just one or two key points, particularly birtherism. After all, it’s been four long years since most voters have heard anything about Coffman’s comments about Obama, and they could use more of a refresher than a brief (and not particularly clear) audio clip of Coffman talking. And with Trump doing his best to make sure his racist crusade stays in the headlines, a commercial that simply portrays him and Coffman as bosom-birthers could resonate more than a spot that just throws Trump Tower’s kitchen sink at Coffman.
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