Coffman bucks GOP caucus, votes for hate crime law

District Six Republican Rep. Mike Coffman joined the entire Colorado Democratic delegation and 17 GOP colleagues in a rare moment on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday — a bipartisan vote on a controversial issue among conservative activists.

Coffman was apparently, and thankfully, not swayed by the disgraceful remarks of North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx that activists perpetrated a gay hate crime “hoax” to garner sympathy for Matthew Shepard’s brutal 1999 slaying in Laramie, Wyo.

The Centennial congressman has not issued a formal statement on the vote nor has his office commemorated it with a floor speech video yet. But a tip ‘o the hat is deserved for Coffman doing the right thing in memory of Shepard, who died in a Fort Collins hospital, and 2008 Greeley murder victim Angie Zapata whose killer was convicted on state hate crime charges last week.