“Mike Coffman can’t be trusted to fight for DREAMers when he’s voting with President Trump 95 percent of the time. What’s even more despicable is that he has deceived DREAMers and used immigration just to score cheap political points throughout the years. Colorado voters can’t afford two more years of Coffman’s empty promises and failed results,” said DCCC Spokesperson Javier Gamboa.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
—-
Vulnerable Republican briefly supported conservative immigration bill, cutting against his moderate image | CNN
By Dan Merica
June 19, 2018
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/19/politics/mike-coffman-conservative-immigration-bill/index.html
Rep. Mike Coffman, a vulnerable Republican in Colorado’s Sixth Congressional District, briefly supported the conservative immigration proposal authored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, going against the moderate immigration profile the Republican is looking to cut ahead of the 2018 midterms.
Coffman’s brief backing of the bill is perplexing given the legislation doesn’t meet the criteria he has laid out for an immigration deal. And it could be politically taxing, as Democrats are already signaling they will use his short-lived support to try to unseat Coffman in the fall.
Coffman, who is running for re-election in a suburban Denver district that Hillary Clinton won by 5% over Donald Trump in 2016, has tried to appeal to moderate voters in the region by positioning himself as in favor of more middle-of-the-road proposals on immigration, distancing himself from the more conservative wings of his party.
A spokesman for Coffman said his initial support of the Goodlatte bill, which until now had not been reported, was his attempt to explore all options for an immigration fix. The congressman withdrew his support, the spokesman added, once he realized the bill would not offer a permanent solution for hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants known as DREAMers.
“We were exploring all legislative avenues and that came aboard,” said Daniel Bucheli, a Coffman spokesman. “Then, looking at the details closer, it was clear there would be no permanent protection for DREAMers and at that point he took his name off it.”
But the Goodlatte bill never offered DREAMers permanent protection, raising questions as to why it took Coffman nine days to realize the bill did not meet one of his primary immigration objectives. The bill, which was widely known at the time as the conservative option to ongoing debates over immigration, was also rolled out on January 10, 2018, months before Coffman decided to attach his name to the proposal.
As part of that rollout, a one-page summary from House Judiciary provided on the bill made clear it would not offer a pathway to citizenship.
“There is no special path to a green card,” reads the summary.
[…] Coffman backed the bill quietly on March 13, 2018, according to the Congressional Record, but nine days later — on March 22 — he took to the House floor and asked for his name to be removed from the plan.
“Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that my name be removed as a cosponsor of H.R. 4760,” he said. His request was granted.
Jason Crow, the Democratic candidate backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the district, said Monday that Coffman’s passing support for the Goodlatte bill shows he is a conservative Republican trying to cast himself as a moderate.
“It’s alarming to see how far out of touch a congressman can become with his district, but this shouldn’t surprise anybody here at home,” Crow said. “This latest quiet deception is more of the same from a career politician whose promise to stand up to Donald Trump ended with a 95% pro-Trump voting record. Once again, Coffman is putting political posturing above what’s best for his constituents.”
The issue is also likely to dog Coffman in November, with outside groups like Organizing for Action, a political organization with ties to former President Barack Obama, telling CNN they plan to use Coffman’s immigration record in their work to turn out Democrats in the district.
“If you don’t like where Mike Coffman stands on immigration,” said Jesse Lehrich, spokesman for the Obama-linked group, “just wait a few days.”
Read the full the entire article here