In his bid to become Aurora’s next congressman, Levi Tillemann has done more than just burn bridges. The 36-year-old wunderkind has started an inferno in an all-or-nothing gamble that has largely overshadowed his primary fight against fellow Democrat Jason Crow — to the potential detriment of both candidates.
The roll of the dice comes in the form of a secret tape recording Tillemann made — and subsequently leaked — of a conversation he had in December with U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, a political power broker and the second-ranking Democrat in the House.
“Crow’s clearly the favorite,” Hoyer said in the recording, pointing to the party leadership’s preference to face five-term Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman. “That doesn’t mean he’ll win. That just means he’s the favorite.”
Faced with that headwind and a steep fundraising disadvantage, Tillemann said he broke decorum and made public the secret recording to “shine a light on the inner workings of democracy” — a move that could burnish his image as an anti-establishment candidate.
Crow, a 39-year-old attorney with the firm Holland and Hart, sees the episode as something else: an example of how much his style differs from Tillemann’s.
“The biggest difference is on our approach and how we lead,” said Crow, a former Army Ranger. “I learned a long time ago — leading soldiers in combat — that it’s better and more enduring to build than to tear down.”
With just weeks left in the race, Tillemann has doubled down on that outsider approach by trying to position himself as the true progressive in the Democratic primary — arguing that he, not Crow, would pursue the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
“Crow supports whatever the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) tells him to support,” Tillemann said.
Whether this is the right strategy and whether Tillemann is the right messenger are questions primary voters will answer June 26.
But no matter who wins, Democrats still must contend with history: Despite their best efforts, Coffman has cruised to re-election in recent years even though the Aurora-area seat is divided almost evenly among Democrats, Republicans and independent voters.
“Mike is one of the best campaigners I’ve ever met,” said Joe Miklosi, who lost to Coffman in 2012.
A possible difference this year is that Democratic opposition to Trump could swell in an electoral wave come November, sweeping up Coffman and other Republicans — although nonpartisan political analysts by no means see the race as a slam dunk.
The Cook Political Report rates the race for Colorado’s 6th Congressional District as a tossup. Inside Elections says it “tilts Republican.”
But Crow believes he has the winning formula.
“It has to do with my lifetime of service to this country and community,” said Crow, who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As part of his service in Iraq, Crow was awarded the Bronze Star.
“Our battalion, our regiment of the 82nd (Airborne Division) was tasked with going in and capturing the city of As Samawah,” Crow said.
Specifically, his role was helping to secure a highway bridge over the Euphrates River.
“My platoon was ordered to the front to take the lead in the mission, and after some pretty heavy street-to-street fighting, my platoon ended up pushing all the way to bridge,” he said.
Crow, however, said he now disagrees with the decision to go to war with Iraq – one plank of a platform that overlaps some, but not all, of the more liberal Tillemann’s.
“The intelligence was inaccurate,” Crow said. “We were misled by the (George W.) Bush administration. … There turned out not to be weapons of mass destruction. And we have seen in the decade that has followed that (decision) has destabilized the entire region.”
On a number of issues, Crow and Tillemann have taken similar, if not parallel, positions.
Both have advocated for a ban on assault weapons. Tillemann, an adviser in the Obama administration’s U.S. Energy Department, wants to make 2035 a goal for 100 percent renewable electricity; Crow’s platform aims to “transition to 50 percent clean energy by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050.”
But there a few key distinctions.
Tillemann is emphatic about impeaching Trump; Crow is noncommittal. Tillemann has been forceful about a single-payer health care system, to be run through Medicaid or Medicare, while Crow has pushed ideas such as a federal public option.
There’s another major difference: fundraising. With the support of national Democrats, Crow is crushing Tillemann in campaign cash, according to federal records.
As of March 31, Crow had netted several times as much: more than $1.2 million vs. about $278,000 — although Tillemann says financial support has ticked up since the Hoyer tape was put online by The Intercept.
Still, Crow’s haul puts him closer to Coffman, who has collected nearly $1.7 million, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Asked what he thought was the biggest issue in the race, Crow cited two: partisanship and campaign finance reform, including finding a way to counteract the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Citizens United that has led to a flood of corporate money in U.S. elections.
“Until we get money out of politics, we are not going to truly representative folks in Congress,” Crow said.
As for Tillemann, his unorthodox approach to politics may come from a dynamic upbringing.
He grew up in Denver with 10 brothers and sisters and a steady stream of foreign exchange students; he estimates more than 200 in all.
Much of the education he and his siblings received was a mix of classes and home-schooling, he said, and many of them went to college early, including Tillemann, who started Regis University at age 15 and transferred to Yale a year later.
“I have a fantastic and complicated family,” said Tillemann, whose clan once was described by Westword as “Denver’s Own Royal Tenenbaums,” in a reference to a 2001 Wes Anderson film.
That included his father, Timber Dick, an inventor who died in 2008 from injuries sustained in a car crash.
Tillemann said one of his father’s passions was the development of a more efficient vehicle engine, a project that Tillemann took up for a few years – although the effort never came to fruition.
“There were some pretty serious problems with the design,” he said.
Tillemann boasts some political lineage too. An uncle and grandfather both served in Congress. His grandmother, Nancy Dick, was Colorado’s first female lieutenant governor.
Yet that background hasn’t helped him much in this race, and his release of the Hoyer tape ultimately could cost him if he loses and ever wants to run again.
Asked about the controversy in April, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Hoyer didn’t do anything inappropriate and questioned the legality of Tillemann’s actions.
“I don’t know that a person can tape a person without the person’s consent and then release it to the press,” she said in a news conference. (Under Colorado law, it’s legal to tape-record a conversation like he did).
But Tillemann said he did it because he believed it was wrong for national Democrats to mess in his race and other local primaries.
“The reason I decided to release the tape,” he said, “was because I knew it wasn’t just happening to me.”
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