February 22, 2022 01:10 PM UTC

Republicans Throw More Gas on Intraparty Fires

• 5 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: State Republican Party Chairperson Kristi Burton Brown proves our point with this retort against former GOP legislator Cole Wist:

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House Minority Leader Hugh McKean is in his second year as the head of the Republican House caucus. He is running for re-election this year for a fourth and final term in HD-51, but things aren’t looking good for the Loveland Republican.

Earlier this month, McKean officially drew a Republican Primary challenge when Austin “Hit ‘Em With The” Hein announced that he would go forth with the blessing of the Neville clan and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners in challenging McKean for the GOP nomination. On Monday, Hein and his RMGO helpers made it clear that they weren’t going to be pulling any punches against McKean. Hein revealed via Twitter that McKean doesn’t appear to live at the address listed on his voter registration. Furthermore, the address listed on McKean’s candidate affidavit form is a UPS P.O. Box.

Colorado candidates for the state legislature are required by law to live within the district in which they seek to represent. Political battles over residency requirements are not a new phenomenon, though they have proven in the past to be difficult complaints to resolve. Republican State Rep. Matt Soper was elected in 2018 and allowed to keep his seat despite some pretty convincing evidence  that he didn’t actually live in the house listed on his voter registration form.

But at least in Soper’s case, the argument about residency involved an actual residence. If McKean really lives at the address listed on his voter registration, then he’s going somewhere else to shower in the morning:

This is, allegedly, where GOP House Minority Leader Hugh McKean is registered to vote. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/sLXOajBQmq

— Logan M. Davis (@LoganMDavis) February 22, 2022

House Republicans selected McKean to serve as Minority Leader in November 2020 after previous Minority Leader Patrick Neville announced that he would step aside on account of the fact that Republicans didn’t like him and he was doing a terrible job. McKean quickly demonstrated his own unique form of ineptitude; it was only a matter of weeks after the late start to the 2021 session that McKean made it clear that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing as Minority Leader.

By the end of the 2021 legislative session, the Nevilles and RMGO were calling for McKean’s head and fellow State Rep. Ron Hanks was quite literally threatening to kill him. On the final day of the 2021 session, House Republicans even held a formal vote to elect a different Minority Leader; McKean survived by a vote of 15-8.

McKean held onto his leadership role in 2022, but his performance has not improved. When he wasn’t making inappropriate references to “rape,” McKean’s big strategy ahead of the 2022 legislative session was to accuse Democrats of copying Republican ideas.

Even after redistricting, HD-51 (Larimer County) is a safe Republican seat. The winner of the June Republican Primary will almost certainly end up winning again in the General Election in November. Normally you wouldn’t see a credible candidate challenging an incumbent near the end of their term — particularly when the incumbent is a member of House leadership — but McKean is a unique case.

Nevertheless, this is bad news for Colorado Republicans in general. The death blow for Neville’s leadership position came after the June 2020 Primary Election, when he and his pals at RMGO failed BIGLY in trying to control the outcomes of several heated GOP battles. It would seem that no lessons were learned from that dumpster fire of a Primary Election. This same group isn’t just trying to oust McKean — they’re smearing him enough that it will be difficult for him to maintain GOP support even if he beats Hein in June.

There are several high-profile Republican battles shaping up this spring, from McKean in HD-51 to a crowded GOP Primary in both CO-08 and the U.S. Senate. The very soul of the Republican Party may be at stake in the race for Secretary of State, where former Jeffco Clerk and Recorder Pam Anderson will have a tough time defeating embattled Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters for the right to challenge incumbent Democrat Jena Griswold in November.

For all the 2022 bravado from leaders such as State Republican Party Chairperson Kristi Burton Brown, Colorado Republicans still seem to be more interested in punching each other than in winning races in November.