An angry crowd greets GOP Rep. Coffman at town hall

AURORA — Steven Haas, 68, stood a row away from U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman and listened to his Republican congressman rattle through an answer about how to improve the Affordable Care Act.

Haas stared straight ahead, front-and-center in an auditorium with 500 people, and tried to interrupt Coffman as the congressman described his own experience signing up for Colorado's health care exchange, decried Medicaid expansion authorized by the bill and lamented the lack of insurance carriers in rural areas.

"How does that answer my question?" Haas, a self-described lifelong Republican, asked the five-term congressman he had never voted for.

In all, Haas' gentle needling of Coffman was about the kindest treatment the congressman would receive at a town hall Wednesday night at the University of Colorado Anschutz Campus in Aurora. Haas was barely audible over Coffman's own amplified voice and the barrage of heckles being tossed out by the rest of the crowd.

It was Coffman's first town hall-style event since he fled an overwhelmed constituent Q-and-A in January. A Denver TV station caught him ducking out the back of the library and into a car before that event's scheduled end. On Wednesday, Coffman made a show of extending the planned hour by almost 45 minutes.

For that, he earned some respect from Haas and his wife.

"Compared to what happened the last time he stood in front of people, I think it was a victory," Haas said.

Haas' wife, Jean, a Democrat, chimed in. "We thought he would leave before 7 o'clock approached," referring to the planned end time for the town hall.

Coffman won his district handily in the 2016 election, even as it swung decisively for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and demographic shifts have it trending increasingly blue. That's made Coffman into a white whale of sorts for Democrats — he has a declared Democratic challenger for 2018 less than six months after his last victory.

Coffman isn't alone in legislators facing belligerent town halls since Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election, nor is he alone in facing angry constituents demanding the gatherings. Liberal-leaning constituents of U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, the last Republican to win a statewide election in Colorado for federal office, in 2014, have taken to bringing cardboard cutouts of him to shaming events and holding faux town halls where they mime his answers.

Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet has meanwhile hosted a few town halls in Colorado, including in conservative Colorado Springs. Town halls for U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat whose district covers the North Front Range, have seen an almost pep-rally vibe in more liberal parts of his district, such as Fort Collins.

Gardner has taken to hosting telephone town halls for different regions in the state. His office does not have any in-person events planned. In a written statement, Gardner defended the tactic, saying he has still been meeting with constituents who are part of specific organizations, such as a meeting with the Western Colorado Cattleman Association and county airport officials. The tele-town halls also allow valuable outreach, he said.

"(The tele-town halls) have allowed me to contact hundreds of thousands of constituents that I would not be able to reach otherwise," Gardner said in a statement. "The calls have been helpful for me to have the chance to speak to so many constituents at once. They have included Democrats and Republicans asking about issues ranging from the dangers of North Korea to energy policy in our state.”

The tactics targeting Gardner have resonated with some voters. Norma Armenta, a 47-year-old constituent of Coffman's, became interested in the town hall since Coffman courted her husband's union in the election. She was initially relegated to an overflow section of the auditorium, where she worried she wouldn't even be part of the lottery used to select questioners from the audience. She had printed out her question. It asked if Coffman would support a billion-dollar budget request from the Trump White House "to fund the mass deportation regime."

"Are we supposed to hug these cardboard Mike Coffmans, like they're hugging the cardboard Cory Gardners?" she asked before the town hall. "Where are our politicians when we need them?"

Coffman's staff was able to fit everyone into the main auditorium, leaving the overflow area empty. Armenta even thought she would get her question in — before the hosts clarified they called 649, not her 645.

For Coffman, he bounced between being combative at times with a decidedly liberal-leaning audience to defensive of his principles. When one woman asked whether he would vote in favor of his constituents or GOP leaders, Coffman shot back.

"I'm not going to ask how you voted, but I think I've won quite a few elections around here and I think the majority of the people in this room ... " Coffman started, before getting drowned out by boos. A follow-up question addressed the lingering insinuation that his real supporters, those not in this auditorium, agreed with him.

A seemingly exasperated Coffman, already having extended his time before an unfriendly crowd twice, drew the comparison to when Barack Obama's victory in 2008 kicked off the Tea Party movement across an angry right wing.

"When Obama was president, I was getting these questions from Republicans," Coffman told the crowd. "'What are you doing to stand up to this president?' And with this president, I'm getting it from the left. I assure you, when I disagree with this president, I will stand up to him."