January 11, 2024 01:43 PM UTC

Why Republicans Can't Have Nice Things: Example #347

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• by: Colorado Pols

Ain’t no party like a Colorado Republican Party because a Colorado Republican Party don’t stop!

We have yet another new internal battle to report, but first…for Colorado Republicans, 2024 is (again) the year of infighting:

♦ State Republican Party Chair Dave Williams vs. Everybody Else in CO-05!

♦ In CO-04, it’s Lauren Boebert vs. Jerry Sonnenberg vs. Mike Lynch vs. Richard Holtorf vs…

♦ Larry Liston vs. Rex (and Vickie) Tonkins in SD-10 for the Spite Crown!

♦ Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd vs. Ron Hanks and who knows who else in CO-03!

♦ And now, in Southwest Colorado, we’ve got the La Plata County Republican Party vs. County Party Chair Shelli Shaw!

Reuben M. Schafir has more on the latest Republican vs. Republican battle for The Durango Herald:

Shelli Shaw, the chair of the La Plata County Republican Central Committee, may be on her way out of town – and it has caused turmoil within the party’s higher ranks.

The house she owns near Lemon Reservoir with her husband, William Shaw, is listed for sale and internal communications among party leaders indicate that Shaw has rebuffed a request from executive committee members to step down effective Jan. 16.

Instead, she told a party precinct captain in an email that she would step down March 19. Shaw is likely to face a vote of no confidence Jan. 29.

Shaw, a far-right conservative who burst onto the scene when she unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Barbara McLachlan for the 59th House District seat in 2022, purchased the home in 2021. She was elected chair of the party in February 2023.

Several documents submitted anonymously, which The Durango Herald was unable to verify, indicate turmoil between Shaw and the rest of the GOP executive committee.

Leaders of two Republican parties in nearby counties confirmed that they had received emails over the weekend documenting that Shaw had been asked to resign and was refusing to do so. [Pols emphasis]

La Plata County Republicans have good reason to want Shaw to resign as County Party Chair ASAP. That’s because Shaw is quite literally preparing TO MOVE TO SOUTH DAKOTA. If you’re not familiar with the area, La Plata is a county that surrounds the town of Durango and is home to about 56,000 people. No matter how you fold a map, La Plata County is NOT anywhere near South Dakota, which is why Republicans have been firing off emails like Fourth of July fireworks:

[One] email concluded with a call for all precinct captains to attend a Jan. 29 meeting to vote on whether Shaw should be removed from leadership.

In a Jan. 8 email to a precinct captain, Shaw said she was “saddened to see the unfolding of confusing, lengthy and hurtful emails this past weekend.”

She wrote of infighting among the party’s leaders and said that “in the last 10-11 months, I have fought off more attacks from our own Executive Committee than I did the Democrats in my race for HD 59.” [Pols emphasis]

“I don’t quit when it gets tough,” Shaw wrote to explain her refusal to step down.

It is unclear why Shaw would want to remain as La Plata County GOP Chair when she won’t even be living in Colorado for much longer. The reporter for the Herald tried to ask these questions, but La Plata Republicans informed the Herald back in September that it was not welcome at their party gatherings on account of some newspaper articles that made them sad (or something equally ridiculous).

Perhaps one day Republicans will get back to fighting Democrats instead of each other. But that day seems further away all the time.