August 26, 2024 12:27 PM UTC

Dave Williams Vows To Fight On Until At Least This Weekend

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• by: Colorado Pols

After the vote by a substantial faction of Colorado Republican Party Central Committee members this weekend to fire state party chairman Dave “Brandon Has Left The Building” Williams along with a pair of Williams’ executive loyalists, Williams remains defiant in a statement to the New York Times last night, stating as everyone already knew that he has no intention of respecting Saturday’s vote–and insisting that the “regularly scheduled” upcoming meeting of the central committee next Saturday is the only one where the question of Williams’ future can be considered:

In an email Sunday night, Mr. Williams denounced the meeting, which was held at a church in the municipality of Brighton, near Denver, as a “sham,” noting that it was “illegitimate” based on procedural grounds.

Mr. Williams also described those behind the vote as “a fringe minority faction” and said that a “real” meeting is scheduled for next Saturday. “The results that follow will be the only ones we respect,” he wrote. [Pols emphasis]

Earlier on Sunday, a statement apparently from Mr. Williams on party letterhead asserted, “These people are definitely making things up as they go along but we won’t be deterred.”

KRDO-TV Colorado Springs:

In an email sent to party members Saturday, the GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman calls the meeting “Fake,” pointing towards an August 31st meeting that “abides by party rules.” The email states that all members will respect the outcome of that meeting.

However, Bremer says Saturday’s meeting was official party business and entirely legal.

“That [August 31st] meeting was actually canceled,” Bremer countered. “The meeting that we held yesterday, which was a legal meeting, again, we had three attorneys in the front of the room, the former state party chair, Kristi Burton Brown, served as an advisor, the top Republican attorney in the state, Chris Murray served as the legal advisor and the former secretary of state. Attorney Wayne Williams served as the parliamentary head.”

But as we noted on Saturday, both sides in this conflict have parliamentarians backing them up:

Scheppelman countered in the Saturday email that the Republican National Committee Parliamentarian has rendered an opinion countering the meeting.

“The meetings scheduled by Watkins et al for both July 27 and August 24 are illegitimate and any action taken there was or will be null and void because they do not constitute properly called meetings of the CRC.” [Pols emphasis]

– Al Gage

The newly-elected maybe-chairman of the Colorado GOP Eli Bremer says he will not attend Satruday’s officially sanctioned meeting, but that could turn out to be a mistake. If Bremer and friends were smart, they would pack Saturday’s meeting in force and drive their momentum into a second, procedurally unassailable vote to oust Williams. If they prevail, it would make direct intervention from Washington and all the problems that would cause unnecessary. Although the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was quick to acknowledge Bremer’s win on Saturday, the real test is whether Lara Trump’s Republican National Committee has the guts to pull the plug on the man Trump endorsed for Congress just a few short months ago.

Like we said on Saturday, our bet is that these are Dave Williams’ final days/weeks as chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. But until every last possible option to stay in power is exhausted, just like his mentor Donald Trump, Williams can be expected to cling bitterly and angrily until dislodged by an authority he can’t ignore.