Author: Mike Coffman
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Denver’s mayor offloads immigrants on Aurora
In late November 2024, Mayor Mike Johnston asked me for permission to use an extended-stay Quality Inn hotel in Aurora to help temporarily house some of the busloads of migrants that were overwhelming Denver. I initially said yes, but it soon became apparent that beyond giving the newly arrived migrants a 30-day hotel voucher, he…
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GUEST COLUMN: Colorado mayors share their priorities on mental health
To the residents of the state of Colorado, its elected officials, voters, and community leaders, As mayors with varying political affiliations representing the three largest cities in our state, we — Mayors Johnston, Mobolade, and Coffman — share a key priority: addressing the shortage of adequate mental health services in Colorado. The problem lies at…
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A Colorado mayor reflects on his weeklong homeless experience | Perspective
Last month, Mayor Michael Hancock’s office reached out to me about jointly working on a regional approach to the growing problem of homelessness in the Denver metro area and I agreed. However, I felt I didn’t have a good understanding of the issue so I decided to go homeless for a week in Aurora and…
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The Gazette helped save our veterans | Mayor Mike Coffman
Newspapers are still the cultural, political, and economic connectivity of a city and they are essential to building our sense of community. In 1983, I left active duty with the Marine Corps to return to Colorado because, although I loved being in the active-duty military, I missed Colorado and wanted to come home to Aurora…
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GUEST COLUMN: Fixing the Veterans Administration
The Veterans Administration is in crisis. The culture of corruption and bureaucratic incompetence that plagues the VA is an abysmal waste of taxpayer dollars and even worse, the men and women who have fought for our country fail to receive the care they have earned. Headline after headline reveals a seemingly never-ending list of scandals…
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GUEST OPINION: We must learn from Paris
Like many people around the world, I watched with horror as the attacks on Paris unfolded. We have now learned that 129 people lost their lives in these brutal and horrific attacks and 350 are injured, some of them Americans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of these victims as well as the…
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GUEST COLUMN: VA secretary has failed to lead our veterans
My late father was a WWII and a Korean War combat veteran who retired as an Army master sergeant. I would often hear him say that the best officers were the ones who “took care of their troops.” The mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to “take care of the troops” by…
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A need to study link between service injuries, behavior
Recently, as the House Armed Services Committee was writing the initial draft of the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act – the annual defense bill – I came across a highly informative piece of investigative journalism in The Gazette entitled “Other Than Honorable” which effectively captured what is unfortunately an all too familiar occurrence…
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GUEST COLUMN: My effort to unlock America’s oil
Recently I introduced the Facilitating American Security Through Energy Resources Act (FASTER). I did this in light of the recent announcement by the Obama Administration to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for 30 million barrels in an attempt to temporarily alleviate rising energy prices, particularly high gasoline prices. The United States started the petroleum reserve…