June 27, 2016 11:58 AM UTC

Bob Beauprez Making Dr. Chaps Very Angry

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Colorado Springs Gazette’s Rachel Riley reports, the red-on-red purge campaign masterminded by two-time GOP gubernatorial loser Bob Beauprez rolls on–and is provoking an angry backlash from its targets, including SD-12 primary contender  Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt:

Just days before the primary election, state Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt is fighting back against a political advocacy group he believes to be responsible for mailing attack ads against him to Republican voters in his district.

Klingenschmitt, who faces Bob Gardner in the state Senate District 12 race Tuesday, submitted a letter to 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office Thursday calling for a criminal investigation into former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, founder of nonprofit Colorado Pioneer Action.

In the letter, Klingenschmitt said the mailers contain false information, a misdemeanor under state law. He added that the ads also violate campaign finance law because they do not identify what individual or organization sent them…

You’ll recall earlier this month when GOP SD-4 candidate Jess Loban, running hard in a primary against “establishment” Ben Lyng, called out Beauprez via subordinate operative Justin Prendergast for wading into his primary. Loban also claimed that Beauprez’s group was running attacks against a number of conservative incumbent lawmakers in addition to Loban–including Reps. Klingenschmitt, Janak Joshi, and Lori Saine. Lumping himself in with those incumbents is clearly about boosting Loban, since picking favorites in an open primary is much more acceptable behavior than attacking incumbents.

We haven’t heard as much about Saine and her primary against Mead trustee Colleen Whitlow in all of this, but Beauprez’s involvement in these two hot primary races in El Paso County seems quite likely to result in intra-GOP bad blood one way or the other. Despite the widespread loathing for Klingenschmitt in non-crazy Republican circles, we’ve heard that he may indeed be the favorite going into tomorrow’s primary against former Rep. Bob Gardner. We’re less certain about Joshi, whose cut-throat race against Larry Liston may hinge more on personal dislike for Liston.

In all of these races where Beauprez appears to be targeting conservative incumbents, there will be grateful winners and angry losers on Wednesday morning. Having lost two critical gubernatorial races for Colorado Republicans in two attempts, backroom purging and kingmaking may be Beauprez’s last best shot at relevance in our state’s politics.

But it had better work. If it doesn’t, Beauprez has made nothing but enemies.