October 23, 2024 01:27 PM UTC

Republican Infighting Continues with Effort to Purge "RINOs"

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As we noted last week, the Colorado Republican Party has taken its collective eyes off the ball that is the 2024 election cycle…to the extent that they were ever truly paying attention to the only thing that really matters for a state political party (winning elections). There’s little reason to think this might change once the 2026 cycle officially gets underway in a few weeks.

Rather than focusing their efforts on assisting Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 5 election, Republicans spent most of the year advancing ridiculous — and dangerous — arguments and fighting amongst themselves over which idiot should be in charge of the State Party. Current Party Chair Dave Williams managed to hold off would-be usurpers and line his pockets; top challenger Eli Bremer conceded defeat in withdrawing his own legal challenge, but not before before mail ballots had already been sent out to Colorado voters. No matter: The Colorado GOP wasn’t really interested in this whole “election” thing anyway.

In short, the Colorado GOP wasted most of the 2024 cycle arguing over the legitimacy of various meetings but forgetting to make sure that Republicans had actual candidates in place in top targeted races. The few efforts from the State GOP intended to “help” Republican candidates ended up backfiring.

You may have assumed the battle over the hearts and minds (to whatever extent those exist) for control of the Colorado Republican Party concluded with a judge’s decision keeping Williams in office. Think again. Colorado Republicans took the dumpster fire they created over the last 18 months and poured gasoline all over it to keep that puppy burning.

According to a website called “RINO Watch Colorado,” the exposing of “RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only) will continue until the Colorado Republican Party includes only the, um, other kind of Republican. Williams will soon have to decide whether or not he plans to seek another term as State Party Chairman (that election is in early 2025). Regardless of that decision, “RINO Watch” is naming names and shaming “RINOs” who are accused of various sins:

The “RINO Watch” website is widely believed to be run by Chuck Bonniwell and Julie Hayden of the “Chuck and Julie Show,” which was once carried on right-wing radio but exists today in podcast form. The website often updates its list of traitors, which it did most recently on October 17.

In order to help make sense of who qualifies as a “RINO” and who does not, we broke out the “elected officials” part of the list. On one side are the “RINOs” who are believed to be insufficiently supportive of Williams and friends. On the other side is what we’ll call the “RATs” (Republicans Against Things). As you’ll see from the list below, the “RATs” are generally those Republicans who oppose everything and make no effort to compromise on anything. The first list, made up of the 19 members of the House micro-minority in the state legislature, is fairly evenly divided among RINOs and RATs:

The second list, made up of the 12 Republicans in the State Senate, is much more lopsided; only four state senators qualify as good guys, according to the “RINO Watch” method:

You might have noticed that Republican legislative leaders — including House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese and Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen — generally end up in the “RINO” column. On the other hand, 2026 gubernatorial hopeful Mark Baisley is one of only four “RATs” in good standing.

The folks who support the current regime in charge of the State Republican Party are apparently not at all supportive of the people who are nominally in charge under the gold dome at the State Capitol. This is probably one of several reasons why Colorado congressional candidates Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd (CO-03) and Gabe-ish Evans (CO-08) ended up needing the help of the Arizona Republican Party when sending out mail pieces to voters.

Aside from elected officials and Republican Central Committee members, there are a few familiar names also labeled as “RINOs.” Those include “former temporary party chair” Eli Bremer; Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn, who announced in June that she wanted to run for State Party Chair; former Secretary of State Wayne Williams; and former State Republican Party Chair (and current candidate for State Board of Education in CO-04) Kristi Burton Brown.

Perhaps this will all get worked out after November 5 — particularly if Republicans suffer another round of bad losses (as they did in 2018, 2020, and 2022). Then again, those difficult election cycles did not end up turning Colorado Republicans back toward a more reasonable delegation of leaders.

The more likely scenario is that the Colorado Republican Party continues its descent into madness and the “RINOs” form their own infrastructure for trying to win elections in 2026.

It’s not all bad news, however…assuming you are a Democrat.