Dustin Zvonek

An internal poll commissioned by 6th Congressional District Democratic nominee Hank Eng's campaign shows Eng within 5 percentage points of Republican nominee Mike Coffman.

That's much closer than most observers of the race have been forecasting in the heavily Republican district. Coffman manager Dustin Zvonek said his campaign's latest poll, taken three weeks ago, showed a 21-point Coffman lead.

Sixth Congressional District Republican candidate Wil Armstrong's manager predicted Wednesday that the CO-6 GOP primary will be decided by a margin of only “a few hundred votes" between Armstrong and primary opponent Mike Coffman.

That’s a lot closer than the Coffman camp’s forecast: consultant Sean Tonner told Roll Call last week that Coffman would win by 10 percentage points on August 12.

But Armstrong's campaign released an internal poll Tuesday that shows Coffman leading Armstrong 33.8 percent to 32.5 percent. The poll, conducted between July 22-28, has a reported margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.

Coffman manager Dustin Zvonek didn’t share Stansbery’s confidence that the primary would end in a dead heat.

With absentee ballots available starting this Friday, Wil Armstrong's 6th Congressional District campaign has purchased about $500,000 worth of TV ads to run through the August 12 primary, broadcast and cable television records show.

CO-6 primary opponent Mike Coffman is also planning significant ad buys in coming weeks, his campaign said Tuesday.

Armstrong's buy, which starts today and is scheduled to run through August 17, includes $457,950 worth of ads on Denver-area broadcast television and $30,007 worth of advertising through Comcast cable television, records show.

With many expecting absentee balloting to rise this year given continued concern over the reliability of the state's electronic voting machines, maximizing name recognition in the weeks before August 12 is vital for the four candidates in the CO-6 GOP race.

Congressional candidate Mike CoffmanSixth Congressional District Republican Mike Coffman will report raising more than $300,000 for the second quarter of 2008, his campaign announced Tuesday.

Coffman manager Dustin Zvonek told PolitickerCO.com that the campaign is still tabulating exact numbers for 2Q fundraising.

But already the campaign has easily bested Coffman's 1Q haul of $244,239, the campaign said in a release sent out Tuesday afternoon. Zvonek added that "the vast majority" of contributions is for the CO-6 Republican primary.

Federal candidates have until July 15 to submit 2Q fundraising reports to the Federal Election Commission.

U.S. Sen. Wayne AllardIt's official: U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Loveland) is backing Wil Armstrong in the 6th Congressional District Republican primary.

The endorsement, announced Monday, was not a surprise: earlier this month, Allard sent out a fundraising letter on Armstrong's behalf.

"In the many years that my wife Joan and I have known Wil, he has consistently demonstrated his conservative principles as a business leader, as an involved community member, and as a father," Allard said in a statement released Monday. "We need more leaders in Congress who have hired employees and grown businesses in the real world. Wil's business acumen, particularly relating to the current economic woes and financial turbulence, will make an impact in Congress."

Joseph Anthony ZvonekMike Coffman's CD-6 campaign announced Thursday that manager Dustin Zvonek's wife Stephanie gave birth to a baby boy, Joseph Anthony Zvonek, last Saturday.

Joseph, the Zvoneks' first child, weighed in at 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 21 inches tall.