July 27th 2024.
Over the past few days, there has been a lot of talk about removing Dave Williams, the head of the Colorado Republican Party. However, a district court judge put a stop to these plans on Friday. Before the judge's ruling, the calls for Williams to step down had reached new heights.
Williams has been the subject of controversy during his time as the GOP chair and has been facing mounting frustrations from within the party. On Friday, most of the state's Republican congressional nominees and Colorado Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen called for Williams to resign. Even U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who received the state party's endorsement in the June primary, made a scathing post on Facebook criticizing Williams, although she did not explicitly call for his removal.
The court's decision means that the meeting planned by some members of the party's central committee for Saturday in Brighton cannot conduct official business if the organizers still go ahead with it. The frustration with Williams primarily stems from the party's decision to endorse a slate of candidates during the primary season, using party resources to promote their preferred Republicans, including Williams himself, and attacking others. The party also faced backlash for sending an anti-LGBTQ+ email during Pride Month in June. However, most of the party's preferred candidates ended up losing their races, including Williams.
A group of county Republican Party leaders, including El Paso County vice chair Todd Watkins and Jefferson County chair Nancy Pallozzi, have been trying for weeks to call for a special meeting of the central committee, which has over 400 members, to remove Williams as the party's head. To do so would require 60% support from the committee.
The state party officials deemed this special meeting as "illegal" earlier this month and even sued the party leaders who called for it. However, Watkins and others argued that party bylaws stated that a special meeting must be called within 30 days of when he filed a petition last month. A meeting organized by the party in a remote location last week, which lasted only a few minutes and did not have a quorum, was not enough to fulfill this requirement.
In the afternoon on Friday, Arapahoe County District Court Judge Thomas W. Henderson granted a restraining order against conducting official business at the upcoming meeting. He stated that allowing it to happen would cause immediate harm because it would call into question the leadership of the Colorado Republican Party, leaving the party in disarray just 100 days before the November 5, 2024 election. The order will be in effect for up to 14 days or until a hearing is held on the party's request for a preliminary injunction.
The party members who called for the meeting did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. Meanwhile, the state party celebrated the court's ruling with a banner on their homepage. However, this ruling did not stop the growing calls for Williams to step down.
Earlier in the day, six out of the eight Republican nominees for Colorado's congressional seats this fall signed a letter to Williams, urging him to resign from his chairmanship immediately. The letter also stated that if he chose not to resign, they implore the members of the State Central Committee to remove him at the meeting on Saturday.
In addition to Lundeen, the letter was signed by Valdamar Archuleta in the 1st Congressional District, Marshall Dawson in the 2nd District, Jeff Hurd in the 3rd District, Jeff Crank in the 5th District, John Fabbricatore in the 6th District, and Gabe Evans in the 8th District. Some of these candidates had received the party's endorsement in June.
Lundeen also commented on the situation, saying, "It's time for state party leadership to replace those who have used their position for personal gain."
While Boebert did not sign the letter, she wrote a post on Facebook around the same time, expressing her disappointment in Williams' leadership after the primary election. She criticized him for not reaching out to candidates and organizations to heal any post-primary conflicts and not offering support to help Republicans win in November. She also called the infighting and public dissent within the party in the past month "embarrassing to watch."
Boebert stated that an attempt to change the party's leadership just 100 days before the election would be disruptive and damaging, but Williams had brought this upon himself. She also added that she is willing to publicly support and help Republicans on the ballot, regardless of whether she agrees with them on every issue. However, if Williams cannot do the same and refuses to show support for candidates, Republicans in Colorado and nationally will look towards different leadership in the final 100 days.
In response to Boebert's Facebook post, the state party issued an unsigned statement, assuring her that they have already expressed their full support for the party's nominees and are working towards providing resources to help them win in November. They also called out Lundeen for his call for Williams' resignation, saying, "Imagine how morally bankrupt Paul Lundeen must be to go after a conservative like Dave Williams without any evidence of wrongdoing but stay silent when his former House Minority Leader counterpart was caught drunk driving."
Despite all the chaos, several Republicans have expressed interest in leading the party. One of them is Eli Bremer, a former U.S. Senate candidate and former chair of the El Paso County Republican Party. He believes that the party needs someone to "triage the situation" and has already put together a group of candidates to replace the state party's leadership. Another contender for the position is Douglas County Republican Chairman Steve Peck, who released a statement on Friday, saying that the party has lost credibility and needs to make a change in course to win Democratic seats in November.
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