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June 19, 2015 08:15 AM UTC

Dispute about RNC involvement in Colorado dogged GOP chair in recent weeks

  • 8 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Colorado GOP chairman Steve House.
Colorado GOP chairman Steve House.

Prior to this week’s coup attempt, state Republican leader Steve House was under fire from Tea Party activists for cozying up too closely with the Republican National Committee (RNC).

It’s unlikely that the failed ouster of House was inspired by disagreements about RNC involvement in Colorado, but I’ll offer up some background about the dispute anyway, in case there’s more to it that I don’t understand.

Plus, the details about the relationship between the RNC and the state Republican Party, which emerge in the radio interview below, show that the state party is an important part of national Republican voter mobilization. This counters the argument you sometimes hear about the irrelevancy of the state party–beyond its role in candidate selection and the caucus process.

In a contentious June 3 interview on KLZ 560-AM, House fought off allegations from host Kris Cook and guest Ken Clark that the RNC was planning to implement voter mobilization strategies in Colorado, without cooperating or working with Republican County Chairs. Both hosts express little or no trust in the RNC, because they don’t think the RNC’s goals (e.g., electing Jeb Bush) align with the state party goals of winning the state house and lower ballot races. And they worry that House is allowing RNC to take control in Colorado.

Also floating around in the background is the 2014 campaign by the Republican Governor’s Association to knock out Tom Tancredo during the GOP primary.

In any case, here’s a few samples of House’s response to Clark and Cook earlier this month. (Listen to the entire interview below,)

House: “I would be screaming loudly if I saw anything in [the RNC’s] actions, or our strategy sessions, or conversation, that they’re going to go to Adams County and cut out Anil Mathai. They’re not going to do that. I’m going with them to Adams County […]. “But we also have to hire people who are smart enough and capable enough to execute a strategy that gets us to victory without Jeff [El Paso County GOP staffer] having to hold their hand. The most important part is we’ve committed to the fact that all of these employees that are hired are going to be interviewed by the county leadership, as well. That is absolutely going to happen. And myself.”

House tried to emphasize that the RNC needs the state party and vice versa:

House: “If you think about what happened in ‘14, in ’14 there were 31 field offices created in the state […] called Victory Offices, etc. This time, the decision was made that it was actually more important to have people than offices. So, we may see two, three, four offices in the state. But it’s mostly about the field organization to get out the vote. And, you know, Chariman Priebus and I, and we’ve had conversations along with Matt Pinnel who is the Chair of Chairs, along with Peter Grace who is the APD for our area from RNC, you know, the strategy is, look, you have to execute on the ground so much better than we have in the past to win in a Presidential year. So the strategy in a presidential year is different than it is in the midterm year. And it really involves all these people because the belief is if we don’t enable minority voters, if we don’t get out the vote at a much higher rate, we’re not going to get there. And offices are not going to do that. So, I think it’s coincidence on the primary, Ken. I’ve talked to these guys five times, six times, in the last two days about strategy. I’ve asked the hard questions all along. I don’t believe we’re going to see –. I wouldn’t let it happen! I mean, I really wouldn’t. I mean, we – there’s no reason in the world, and there’s no way the RNC really can run their strategy without involving county Parties in what’s going on, because there’s not enough with 43 or 45 people on the ground to do that. They have to integrate into our volunteer structure and our counties, or there won’t be enough people.

House emphasized that in 2014, the RNC transferred money to the state party to cover the payroll of over 700 people, including staff, walkers, and field directors.

“So it all flows through the Colorado GOP,” he said.

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8 thoughts on “Dispute about RNC involvement in Colorado dogged GOP chair in recent weeks”

  2. I am so confused.
    Ryan Call was ousted because he was/is an establishment tool. Correct?
    Steve House, Tea Party nutjob, replaced him.
    Now, House is accused of being a collaborationist.

    So, House is Leon Trotsky.
    Who is playing the part of Lenin?

    If I were House, I would avoid any trips to México.

  4. Yes, let's tread on them. The "Liberty People" won't ever vote for Jeb Bush, whom they see as a RINO. They like Cruz, Paul, Perry or West in the Presidential race. So if Bush gets the nomination, they're not going to want to cooperate with their local GOP office. Will they go along, as we Dems will if Hillary is the Dem nominee? Some will, some won't.

    The Liberty movement people want House to allocate resources to their Tea Party policies, which are basically what you'd expect: no gun restrictions, more charter schools, Christian church rules the state, abolish the IRS, no regulation of anything, drown the tyrannical Federal government. Their  Principles are listed here:

    Many of them are secret or open secessionists, and these include people who are elected officials. House will never be able to satisfy them. Nobody can possibly bring together these warring factions within the Colorado Republican party.

    And that's fine with me. Because we can go on ahead and have elections and good government while they're fighting about whose ideology is more pure.

    You can find out about the ideas, people and policies of the "liberty movement" in Colorado at : Ogreexposed.org, PrinciplesofLiberty.org, the Facebook group Republican Liberty Caucus of Colorado

  5. This reminds me of the '04 Dem Presidential. Kerry's people decided they didn't need locals.They tried to run the entire campaign from east of the Potomac, with zero understanding of how things worked in the rest of the country. They were especially clueless about anything west of the Mississippi, They actually threatened legal action against people who used the campaign logo unless the materials came directly from them. That worked out well 

  6. Any one who equates Liberty with Tea Party is missing something. Rarely does Tea Party = Liberty. Tea Party tends to be hard SoCon. Liberty wants you to live your life as you see fit so long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others. 

    Now, here's a point where Liberty, Tea Party, OGREs, and others in the big tent seem to agree: the RNC is trouble. They don't have to be trouble, but unless the chair is willing to seriously negotiate the important points with them, trouble they will remain. Anyone with 1 functioning brain cell could figure out the intent of their insipid plan. They are, as usual, trying to take Colorado volunteers for their proven strategy of losing. They want to impose the DC model on Colorado. Chairman House doesn't even know what is important in negotiations and it doesn't matter. He's bought and paid for with nothing more than strokes to his ego. Now he just tells his audiences what he thinks they want to hear. And that varies with the audience.

    1. Beisbol, It seems that you're saying that the "Liberty People" don't really care about sexual practices and cannabis use, as long as free markets, low taxes, "states rights", and little to no government regulation are preserved. I guess that fits with what I've seen on their sites. You're throwing bones to the RMGO gunnie folks, too, because that's the only issue they care much about.

      But where does Steve House fit in that continuum? Is he a social conservative, or a liberty "Free Enterprise Rules" conservative? I think Ryan Call was more of a Liberty person by that definition.

      But from what I see, (and I can't cite sources)  the critiques of Call are all about how he went overboard in hiring a law firm to defend against the IEC, (because you really can't have an "independent" party sponsored expenditure committee, duh), and House is now tainted with that because the law firm is still being paid. So that was free enterprise run amok, and you all are still, literally, paying for Call's and House's decisions.

      Your critique of House as someone who will try to please everyone and pleases no one fits with criticisms that I'm seeing online, as well. But realistically, you all are a bunch of cats – house cats, feral cats, wildcats, neutered cats, cats in heat – and herding you all into some kind of consensus and then negotiating with the Big DC Cat is beyond any Great Leader. Have you all ever had a GOP chair who negotiated successfully with the RNC?

      It's more like, you want this money, you will do what I say. Dems have the same issue with the DNC.

       

       

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