Jack Stansbery

Conservatives can claim a major victory this week thanks to U.S. Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his vice presidential running mate, but Democrats in the state also made significant gains in voter registration over the summer. See all of this week's Winners & Losers. | CLICK HERE

Jack Stansbery, who ran Wil Armstrong's unsuccessful Republican primary campaign for the 6th Congressional District, is now Colorado state campaign director for John McCain's presidential campaign.

Stansbury started in the position Aug. 25, he said; he'll be working out of McCain state headquarters in Centennial.

A former Colorado GOP executive director, Stansbery managed former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez's (R) successful 2004 congressional campaign. He's also a former political director for the Trailhead Group, a conservative 527 organization.

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.

CD-6 GOP candidate Wil Armstrong has hired veteran GOP consultant Jack Stansbery as his campaign manager, Armstrong's campaign announced Thursday afternoon.

Stansbery, a former Colorado GOP executive director, managed former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez's (R) successful 2004 congressional campaign. He's also a former political director for the Trailhead Group, a conservative 527 organization.