Wil Armstrong

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

Sixth Congressional District Republican candidate Wil Armstrong's manager predicted Wednesday that the CO-6 GOP primary will be decided by a margin of only “a few hundred votes" between Armstrong and primary opponent Mike Coffman.That’s a lot closer than the Coffman camp’s forecast: consultant Sean Tonner told Roll Call last week that Coffman would win by 10 percentage points on August 12.

But Armstrong's campaign released an internal poll Tuesday that shows Coffman leading Armstrong 33.8 percent to 32.5 percent. The poll, conducted between July 22-28, has a reported margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.

Coffman manager Dustin Zvonek didn’t share Stansbery’s confidence that the primary would end in a dead heat.

Sixth Congressional District Republican candidate Wil Armstrong picked up his most high-profile supporter to date on Tuesday, winning the endorsement of former Massachusetts Gov. and possible VP candidate Mitt Romney.

"Washington is broken and Wil Armstrong is the best man to fix it," Romney said in a statement.

Sixth Congressional District Republican candidate Wil Armstrong released a television ad Monday labeling primary opponent Mike Coffman as a "career politician with a record of controversy."

The Coffman campaign, anticipating a negative ad from the Armstrong camp, quickly responded Monday with a robocall to all CO-6 registered Republicans from Coffman's wife Cynthia.

Another day, another list of name GOP endorsements for Wil Armstrong.

The 6th Congressional District Republican candidate was endorsed Thursday by:

• Former Secretary of State Gigi Dennis
• RNC committeeman Mark Hillman
• 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman, state Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany
• Former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton
• Former state Director of Higher Education Rick O'Donnell
• Former state Director of Natural Resources Greg Walcher