Mike Coffman

With Mike Coffman heavily favored to be elected to Congress this fall, speculation is rising about who would succeed him as Colorado Secretary of State.

As Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter would appoint Coffman’s successor, many Republicans fear Coffman’s departure would cause the GOP to lose yet another statewide office to the Democrats. Such feeling was exploited –unsuccessfully, as it turned out – by Coffman’s Republican primary opponents.

Carroll said so far she hasn’t seen any jockeying for the position among Democrats.

I haven’t heard on the Democratic side who is speaking for themselves saying ‘I want to run,’” Carroll said.

Some TV commercials from the 2008 House primaries:

There’s some speculation among Democrats that Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald will emerge as a candidate for Secretary of State now that GOP incumbent Mike Coffman appears headed for Congress. Ironically, Fitz-Gerald also imagined she’d be headed to Washington before millionaire Jared Polis emerged as the Democratic primary winner by 1,761 votes. For Fitz-Gerald, SecState could be her consolation prize – and unless he takes it, there’s really no place for her to go.

A new survey from a Democratic polling firm released Monday provides further evidence that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall's once-substantial lead is continuing to slip.

The Public Policy Polling survey still showed Udall leading by 6 points. But that's 9 percentage points lower how Udall polled in July's PPP survey.

Monday's poll also showed Democrat Barack Obama with a 4-point lead over Republican John McCain in the U.S. presidential race in Colorado. That's the same lead Obama had in July's PPP survey.

Looking forward to the 2010 U.S. Senate race, incumbent U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Denver) leads U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) and Secretary of State Mike Coffman 49-37 and 46-38, respectively.

The survey, conducted among 933 likely voters between Aug. 5 and Aug. 7, has a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percent.

DENVER -- With Tuesday's Primary Day, PolitickerCO.com analyzes the top contests in Colorado. Will Jared Polis' ad barrage help him trump Joan Fitz-Gerald in the 2nd Congressional District? Can Doug Lamborn do it again in the 5th District over the same names he beat in 2006? Has Mike Coffman really put the 6th District race away? And, oh yeah -- turns out there's a GOP primary in the 1st District, too.

Sixth Congressional District Republican candidate Mike Coffman's campaign filed a complaint Thursday with the Federal Election Commission that seeks to force a 501(c)4 group to disclose who paid for an anti-Coffman mailer sent out under the group's name.

The complaint alleges that the group, Protect Colorado Jobs, broke federal law when one of its officers, Denver consultant Curt Cerveny, arranged for and produced a mailer sent to every registered Republican in the 6th District late last month.

The Coffman campaign cited federal election law stating that it's illegal for federal political campaigns to launder campaign funds through a non-profit corporation to evade contribution limits.

Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, John Berry, the registered agent and secretary-treasurer for Protect Colorado Jobs, said he had just received the complaint and wanted to read it before commenting.

With the 6th Congressional District primary days away, Mike Coffman’s campaign is clearly feeling good about his chances in the race.

His campaign sent out an e-mail Monday looking for interns for his general campaign office, but it sounded like he was already taking office in Washington.

The e-mail, sent out by Coffman organizational director Jeff Small to 42 College Republicans and others interested in working with the campaign, asserts that Coffman “is the unanimous favorite to win on August 12th.”

“Should this be the case, internships will be immediately available with the strong potential of earning a job in Mike's Congressional office,” the e-mail stated.

“Mike has said he will give first priority to those who work hard with him in the trenches, and now is your chance to show him what you've got!”

Some 6th Congressional District Republican primary campaigns have commissioned pollsters to survey how the race is playing out.

But Steve Ward's campaign prefers to poll 6th District voters the old-fashioned way: by going door-to-door themselves and asking them.

And what they're hearing, said Ward manager Christine Burtt, is that Ward is leading in the four-man GOP primary with support nearing 30 percent and a two-candidate race is shaping up between him and Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman.

With the primary election approaching, both Wil Armstrong and Mike Coffman dipped into their personal bank accounts last month for ad buys.  

Sixth Congressional District candidate Wil Armstrong has loaned his campaign $500,000 in July, according to new FEC records. Coffman loaned his campaign $100,000, FEC records show. 

Also, the Coffman campaign hasn't been running TV ads this week -- that's because the campaign is building up for a last-minute ad blitz next week, Zvonek said.

A new Coffman ad will begin airing next Sunday or Monday, Zvonek said.

The chairman of the 501(c)4 group Protect Colorado Jobs sent out an unauthorized mailer  to 50,000 CO-6 Republican voters using the group's name to attack Republican candidate Mike Coffman.

Two supporters of Coffman primary opponent Wil Armstrong gave $15,000 to the chairman, political consultant Curt Cerveny, to produce the piece, according to a source knowledgable about the situation.

Cerveny raised the money, produced the mailer, and sent it out without knowledge of the group's contributors and most of its officers, the Denver Post reported.

Reached by phone Thursday, Cerveny told PolitickerCO, "I don't have any comment on any of this."

Armstrong manager Jack Stansbery said the Armstrong campaign "had nothing to do with" the mailer and didn't know who paid for it.

Anti-Coffman mailer, side 1

Anti-Coffman mailer, side 2