The faction of the Colorado Republican Party supporting embattled state chair Dave Williams gathered at a church in Castle Rock on Saturday to reaffirm him as the legitimate head of the state GOP.
The meeting was a direct rebuke to a gathering of Williams’ opponents last Saturday in Brighton, in which they voted to oust him and put Eli Bremer, a former local party chair in El Paso County, into the job.
In a call to action urging Republican Central Committee members to attend the Aug. 31 meeting, Williams wrote, “This past Saturday we witnessed an attempted coup of our legally elected grassroots leadership. Are you willing to let a fringe minority faction of the Uniparty be your voice and the voice for over 900,000 Colorado Republicans?”
A reporter for CPR News attempted to attend the Castle Rock meeting but was told it was closed to the media. Security guards blocked journalists from entering the building or standing outside in the church parking lot.
According to a livestream of the vote at Saturday’s meeting, only ten people voted in favor of replacing Williams, while there were 191.5 votes to reject the actions of the previous week’s meeting in Brighton. (Some central committee members get fractional votes.)
“Everything that happened last weekend was a complete charade,” said former state Sen. Ted Harvey. He called the opponents’ meeting an illegal pep rally and told attendees in Castle Rock that Williams simply does what the party’s central committee wants.
“He works for you all.”
A party rift with no end in sight
This is now the second week in a row that a faction of the Colorado GOP has gathered for a vote on Williams’ leadership. Each side boycotted the other’s meeting, arguing that to attend would legitimize an improper vote.
“Today’s meeting was not a legitimate meeting because Dave Williams is no longer state party chair,” said Lois Landraf of Fountain, a former Republican state representative and current member of the party’s central committee. She attended last week’s meeting where she also served as a proxy for several current lawmakers who all cast votes to remove Williams.
That vote appears to have changed little regarding the GOP’s day to day operations on the ground. Williams remains in charge of the party’s bank accounts, social media and email lists among other things.
Williams’ detractors say his divisiveness and hard right stances, as well as attacks on other Republicans, and his handling of party finances are hurting Republican candidates up and down the ballot. However, the dueling meetings and disputed votes mean the intraparty fight that has been building for months is likely to continue indefinitely.
On Wednesday, Bremer filed a complaint in El Paso County on behalf of the state GOP accusing Williams of being in breach of his contract because he still controls the party mechanics.
“We’re going to finish up our actions in court. What happened today makes no difference,” Bremer told CPR News of Saturday’s vote.
“He's been using the party money and we hope to bring that to an end.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee said last week that it recognizes Bremer as chair, but the Republican National Committee has yet to weigh in. Bremer told CPR News he doesn’t expect the RNC to recognize a chair until after the courts sort things out.
During Saturday’s meeting, some of the participants blasted the NRCC for siding with Williams’ opponents and attendees voted unanimously to declare that the NRCC has no authority in the matter.
To his supporters, Williams is a ‘Make America Great’ ‘America-first’ leader
Republican Dana Bonham came to the Castle Rock meeting in a BMW convertible wrapped with an image of a bald eagle and an array of conservative slogans, from “Don't tread on me” and “In God we trust” to “Let's go Brandon” and “Make America great.”
Bonham isn’t on the central committee so she didn’t have a vote but said she was there to support Williams.
“He's a Make America Great, America-first candidate and he's done an excellent job,” Bonham told CPR News as she left the church. “We have RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) within our own Republican Party that we are fighting, unfortunately. Instead of fighting the real battle, we are forced to fight these little divisions here, but we're not going to be distracted.”
Bonham said that for too long establishment Republicans have tried to appease people in the political middle. Williams, she believes, is charting a new course that will help reestablish the party in the state.
“We have momentum going and it's time to give him a chance. It's time to give the America-first people a chance. We've given the RINOs enough chances and they've blown it,” she said.
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