Thanks for the input BKBK...you are exactly right, it was interpreting the domain and www.domain differently. The cfcookie has been setting for years with no domain attribute and suddenly this problem came up.
I have tried it with and without the domain attr and it still will not include the "www" inside the domain like it should.
I solved the problem (so far so good at least) with a url redirect that sends all www requests to the regular domain name.
~Mike