From the Rocky Mountain News:
The election was held five weeks ago but Arapahoe County Republicans are still cutting each other up.
They’re squabbling over the state Senate seat that Jim Dyer resigned in midterm after being elected as an Arapahoe County commissioner Nov. 7. The GOP vacancy committee election to fill the seat is set for Saturday.
The rivals are former Centennial Councilwoman Betty Ann Habig (who lost a primary to Spencer Swalm in House District 37 in August) and former Arapahoe County Commissioner Steve Ward.
“I am originally from Chicago and the political machine there can’t hold a candle to these people,” writes Habig supporter Fred Mould.
Ward alleges Habig includes a half-dozen people (out of more than 100) on her list of supporters who aren’t in fact endorsing her. Habig denies the defections but has decided to drop the list from her Web site.
Meanwhile, Habig claims that Ward and his allies, who include former House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, are trying to change Senate District 26 bylaws. They want numerous precinct committee people appointed to vacancies after Dyer resigned Dec. 6 to become retroactively able to vote in the vacancy election. The current bylaw restricts the voting to precinct officers “in the district as of the date of the vacancy.”
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I heard she’s fairly “moderate” as Republicans go. I hope this compliment doesn’t scuttle her chances in the vacancy committee. Anybody Stengel backs has got to be bad–if I were in the GOP, I’d stay away from Ward.
I would think he would delay his resignation to the last possible moment (i.e., the hour before he is sworn in as commissioner) to try to invoke the so-called Fitz-Gerald Rule regarding the calculation of whether Dyer’s replacement serves more or less than a full term.
If someone is appt. this Sat., it’s pretty clear that Dyer’s unexpired term will count as a full term. In that event, Habig or Ward will be limited to running only one more time.
Habig is a Republican but she treated me, an elector in her district and an unabashed Dem, with respect when we had occasion to communicate.
Stengel is infamous for his ethical lapses, capped by his resigning early so he can glom on to more money.
The Bar should have worked him over on that one….
The Bar should have worked him over on that one….
Does this overly clever attempt to gut the established procedures for voting on vacancies remind any of our readers of the wrong-headed, ill-fated and absolute debacle the Republicans pulled in the closing days of the session when they tried to engineer a coup over the Congressional redistricting?
Perhaps Stengel et al could have all of their minions stand in unison and recite different pages of the state law and the district bylaws.
Arapahoe County hangs in the balance between Democrats and Republicans. Stengel and his henchmen are working diligently to create Arapahoe in the image of the Jefferson County transition and the Larimer County transition.
As I understand what is going on – at least what the gossip is – Habig has the endorsement of numerous Republicans including not only Dyer, but also Tancredo and Holtzman. Is that true?