HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colorado (AP) – Republican Rep. Mike Coffman and his Democratic challenger, Andrew Romanoff, clashed over immigration, campaign finance and the budget on Thursday, in the first debate in one of the most competitive, expensive and closely watched House contests in the nation.
Colorado’s 6th Congressional District is evenly divided between Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters, and both parties and their supporters are pouring funds into the battle between three-term incumbent Coffman and Romanoff, a former Colorado House speaker.
On Thursday morning before a standing-room-only crowd, Coffman portrayed himself as a leader willing to cut waste in the military budget and take bold steps for the country’s good. Romanoff fashioned himself as a nonpartisan, solutions-oriented candidate appalled by Washington gridlock.
At one point Romanoff, who refuses to accept contributions from political action committees, asked Coffman to agree to a deal refusing all “special interest” money in the race. Coffman, who comes from a military family and is the only congressman to fight in both the Gulf and Iraq Wars, declined.
Immigration has been a flashpoint in the district, which Democrats redrew after the 2010 election to move Coffman from terrain formerly represented by immigration firebrand Tom Tancredo to an area that is 20 percent Hispanic. Coffman began studying Spanish and announced his support for letting people brought into the country illegally as children earn citizenship through military service. On Thursday, the congressman called for a “step-by-step” approach on immigration that begins with securing the border, but he said he opposed “a special path to citizenship for adults who knowingly broke the law.”