CO-6 2012 Results:
President: Obama +5
U.S. House: Coffman +2
CO-6 2014 Results:
Governor: Hickenlooper +3.5
U.S. Senate: Gardner +3.5
U.S. House (against an excellent democratic nominee): Coffman +9
If that doesn't demonstrate great ability to win over swing voters, I don't know what does.
For all the praise that Gardner still gets in terms of his strength as a candidate, he was effectively generic R. His narrow statewide margin showed that he didn't win because he was "republican jesus", he won because of:
1) The wave
2) Udall's terrible campaign
3) Local media being in the tank for him
You take any of those away, and Udall wins. Seriously.
If the CO GOP wants a gardner-like candidate who needs a lot of luck to win, Scott Tipton is the one. But if they want a candidate that not even the 2012 climate could take out, Mike Coffman is the guy to choose, and the only reason the atlas dem mentality says he isn't a great candidate is because they know he's a great candidate and think not admitting it will make him less great.
By this logic, Florida should be leans D right now since Patrick Murphy won 60-40 in 2014 in a R-3 district.
