July 19, 2015 11:38 AM UTC

Morgan Carroll Takes Coffman To Task: "It's On His Watch"

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• by: Colorado Pols

This morning, 9NEWS aired Kyle Clark’s latest Balance of Power interview with Colorado Sen. Morgan Carroll, who is running for Congress against Rep. Mike Coffman in the swing Sixth District. In today’s must-watch interview, Carroll gave an able preview of the issues in this race, demonstrating a willingness to go directly after Coffman that will cheer longsuffering Democrats looking to finally unseat him. Click here if the video below doesn’t appear:

Sen. Carroll begins by going through a long list of bad votes Coffman has taken over the years on a range of issues. At about the 3:40 mark, Kyle Clark turns the discussion to the drastically overbudget VA medical center project in Aurora, noting attacks Coffman has received from the left over his role as chairman of the oversight committee responsible for the project. Carroll doesn’t let Coffman’s first response to these criticisms, generally consisting of a photo of Coffman in uniform, stop her from calling him out as part of the problem:

CLARK: Let’s jump back to the VA hospital. There are some liberal groups, Progress Now included, that say Congressman Coffman shares some of the blame for the failures with that project. Do you agree with that?

CARROLL: I believe there’s a lot of blame to go around for everybody. The concern I have with this project is that it has been in the making for years. It is a broken promise to veterans. And so, Mike Coffman is on the oversight committee, and the time to ask questions when you’re overseeing public projects for veterans with taxpayer’s money isn’t after it’s already overbudget and behind schedule, it’s beforehand.

CLARK: So you’re saying he does deserve some of the blame for what’s happened.

CARROLL: It’s on his watch. It’s absolutely on his watch. It’s his responsibility, representing his district, and it’s happening on his watch. [Pols emphasis]

It’s one thing for a blog to write about it, or for an opposing political group to send out a press release. Carroll’s willingness to directly confront Coffman on his own responsibility for the Aurora VA hospital project means that for the 2016 campaign for CD-6, Coffman’s supposed “strong point” on veteran’s issues will not be off-limits. Coffman’s recent grandstanding on this project’s failures, downplaying his own role in oversight of the project, isn’t going to go unopposed. We’ve long believed that attacking Coffman where he is strongest, or at least thinks he is, will be absolutely necessary for Democrats looking to defeat him–as long as he draws an opponent who is willing to take his supposedly inviolate record on such issues head on.

Looks like Democrats might finally have one, folks.