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January 08, 2024 01:41 PM UTC

There Really is Nobody Left in Charge for Colorado Republicans

  • 9 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Colorado Republicans have had trouble winning elections in Colorado for more than a decade, but the damage has dialed up exponentially in recent election cycles. Republican candidates have been absolutely throttled at the ballot box in every election since 2018, culminating in a 2022 cycle that one ousted lawmaker labeled an “extinction-level event.”

You don’t even need one hand to count the current number of statewide elected Republicans in Colorado (that number is ZERO). The only reason Republicans won’t lose a statewide race in 2024 is because there isn’t anything on the ballot to fumble away.

Republicans currently hold just 31 of the 100 seats in the state legislature. It’s almost mathematically impossible for that number to go any lower.

We’ve often said in this space that the Republican bench in Colorado is small enough to fit inside a phone booth, and that was BEFORE all three Republican-held Congressional districts were abandoned by incumbents: Rep. Lauren Boebert is attempting to move from CO-03 (Western Slope/Southern Colorado) to CO-04 (Eastern Plains), which is an open seat because Rep. Ken Buck isn’t running again, and last week Rep. Doug Lamborn announced that he would also step aside in CO-05 (Colorado Springs). Those three open seats, which exist in what should all be fairly safe Republican districts, have created new opportunities that are draining the last of the GOP leadership in Colorado.

This morning, Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams announced that he will run for the open seat in CO-05. The unscrupulous Williams used the official email account of the Colorado Republican Party to make his formal announcement, adding that he plans to continue serving as the State GOP Chairman at least through the June Republican Primary (which for all intents and purposes will decide the next Member of Congress from CO-05). Kyle Clark of 9News called Williams’ announcement “ethically gelatinous”:

 

Post by @kyleclark9news
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As you may recall, Williams also ran for CO-05 in 2022 but lost by more than 15 points to “Zombie” Doug Lamborn. He spent a good deal of time in his first few months as GOP Chair bashing Lamborn via Colorado Republican Party platforms. Can Williams really remain as State Party Chairman while he runs for Congress against other Republicans? Legally, it’s not clear. Ethically, the answer is unequivocally “NO,” and plenty of other Republicans are upset about it.

Conservative radio host Jimmy Sengenberger is among those who are angry with State Party Chair Dave Williams for all but abandoning his post at such a critical time.

Colorado Republicans are already almost comically fractured and obsessed with fighting internal battles. The open warfare for three Republican-leaning Congressional seats will only make things worse.

The state legislature reconvenes this week, and it will do so with a House Minority Leader — Mike Lynch in CO-04 — distracted with his own run for Congress. At least one other House Republican (Rep. Richard Holtorf) is running for the same congressional seat. That’s a whopper of a conflict of interest for Lynch.

The Assistant Minority Leader, Rose Pugliese, is in the middle of her FIRST TERM in office and is a good bet to also run for Congress in CO-05. If she does jump in that race, she will face Williams and likely also Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen.

In short, the head of the entire State Republican Party and the leadership of both GOP caucuses in the state legislature are focused on their own political careers rather than helping to direct other Republicans in 2024. Meanwhile, Republicans still don’t even have candidates for half of the available State House seats this cycle and only a third of the available State Senate seats. The party caucuses are less than two months away.

Things are just as bad on the federal level. The only Republican Member of Congress who is not retiring (Boebert) will barely have time to pay attention to her own constituents in CO-03 while she worries about finding a place to live 400 miles away and competing in a crowded Republican Primary in CO-04.

This all sounds like a bizarro version of that famous Abbott and Costello routine, except the answer to every question is the same.

Who’s on first? Nobody.

Who’s on second? Nobody.

Who’s on third? You get the idea.

Comments

9 thoughts on “There Really is Nobody Left in Charge for Colorado Republicans

  1. Meanwhile, Trish Zornio (you know, the woman who thought she should begin her run for elected office by starting with a US Senate race) explains in the Colorado Sun that

    Colorado now boasts 29 lawmakers who have gained access to their seats either currently or initially via vacancy committee, with at least one more vacancy appointment expected soon. That will bring us to a total of 30 out of 100 lawmakers — or 30% — who gained access to the legislature by a small group of party officials, not by district voters. It’s a big problem.

    And then her "solution" — not appointment by governor, not special elections … but something.

    I’ll start: Can we somehow build in a second-place finisher in the general election as first alternates in the event a seat is vacated? Can we somehow create a new, alternate position during the general election such that the winner can temporarily fill in as needed so district services never go unmet? Can we somehow keep the vacancy committee option but mandate that the appointee is ineligible to run for another term immediately after?

    The short answer is I don’t know. But I do know that we can and should expand the conversation to think outside of the box because Coloradans deserve a representative government and getting picked by a handful of party affiliates just isn’t it.

    As a one-time debate coach, I'd point out she does not distinguish between those "initially" selected and those who after selection, have faced the voters in one or more elections (how big of a problem is this, anyway?).  Nor is there any clear reason to understand why the advantages of "incumbency" is necessarily a bad thing for Colorado (and I'd argue that there are disadvantages of incumbency, too). Nor does she explain WHY there are vacancies (my guesses: low pay, episodic work, & term limits, along with the ordinary issues of unpleasant working conditions and colleagues) and whether we should do something about those problems. .

    1. Not sure that the current system is best at finding a replacement to fill the seat, but I'm not sure that using the "First Runner Up" model used in the Miss America Pagent would be an improvement.

       

      1. This is more how I understood Zornio's article. She's not happy with the vacancy committees, but she's not sure what would be better. I don't get the feeling that she's too keen on the "First Runner Up" idea either but just that she's throwing an idea out there in hopes of sparking other ideas that would likely be better than the "First Runner Up" idea.

        1. If we don't want to (or can't) change things like the part-time legislature, low pay, and term limits (and thus limit the number of resignations), my wish list would be

          • holding a replacement election at the next regularly scheduled primary or general election (no added expense, better turnout than a "special" election).
          • using existing staff (or hiring replacements from the district) and providing extra hours of paid work to provide constituent service.  Having those workers supervised by the chamber's party leader.

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