The Republican Party in Colorado is struggling. But even worse it has been fighting itself for the past year and a half. Our party has been in the news more for these conflicts than for issues related to electing our Republican candidates. Not a good thing. However, this internal struggle is existential. What does the Colorado GOP actually stand for? This is an issue that the Colorado State Central Committee is dealing with. (The State Central Committee or SCC is the governing body of our party. It is composed of representatives from each county - the Chair, Vice-chair and Secretary from each of the sixty-four counties in the state and the State Party Executive Officers, the Republican state and federal elected officials from and the National Committeeman and National Committeewoman. At present, the SCC consists of 415 members). While this internal conflict is truly a distraction and may actually affect the results of the upcoming November 5th election, it is an issue we are being forced to deal with. We had a discussion on this issue at our last Delta County Republican Central Committee (DCRCC) meeting and I was asked to provide an analysis on the situation and the rationale for the stand that the Delta County Executive Committee has taken on this struggle. Let me review what has happened in the past year and a half and provide our reasons for taking the position that Dave Williams, Hope Scheppelman and Anna Ferguson needed to be removed from office.
This internal struggle actually began when Dave Williams was elected as state party chairman on March 11, 2023. The following is from a blog I wrote on the election of new officers and was published on March 20, 2023.
“This past weekend on March 11, 2023, the Colorado Republican Party State Central Committee (SCC) met in Loveland Colorado to elect new party officers. The event was attended by elected Republican county officers and bonus members from the sixty-four counties plus elected Republican state officials. Three hundred fifty-three members were in attendance, as well as a number of guests and visitors. From Delta County, I attended, along with our Secretary Brittany Deleff and our Treasurer Cathy Cheatham, serving as a proxy for our Vice-Chair Leslie Parker. There were seven candidates vying for the chairmanship, two candidates running for vice-chair and four candidates competing for the secretary position. …
The third and final round of voting gave Eric Aadland 170 votes or 45.2% and Dave Williams 206 votes or 54.8%.
Dave Williams is a former member of the Colorado House of Representatives, representing House District 15, in El Paso County. He assumed office on January 11, 2017. He left office on January 9, 2023. Williams' professional experience includes working as the vice president of logistics for his family-owned company and as the vice chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party. He unsuccessfully ran in the primary to unseat incumbent Congressman Doug Lamborn in 2022. He is an ardent Trump supporter. He was very strident in his nomination speech. He made the following comments during his nomination speech, “Our party doesn’t have a brand problem. Our party has a problem with feckless leaders who are ashamed of you and ashamed of our conservative values. Our party can win again, but only if we first reject their failed leadership and go on offense. I'm sick and tired of our party always being on defense. We are the party that elected Donald J. Trump and we are not going to apologize. It’s time to go on the attack. So why don’t we go on offense, offense, offense!” He (Williams) was much more conciliatory after he was elected. He expressed a desire to work with the different factions in the party to get Republicans elected. He was joined on stage by the second-place finisher, Erik Aadland, who also encouraged all Republicans to unite and work together to be successful in electing Republican candidates.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Williams did not reach out to the different factions within the Colorado GOP. Rather he immediately went on the offense and attacked. However, he did not attack the Democrats. Instead, he went after the Republicans who did not support him in his election. As a county chair, I can tell you that Dave Williams has never reached out or made any attempt to work with the county organizations. Rather, he has cultivated his supporters, whom Williams has come to call “Grassroot Patriots.” Most of these Williams supporters are Bonus Members in the various counties (Bonus Members are additional members of the SCC. Two bonus member positions are awarded to each county, for each 10,000 voters who vote in the previous gubernatorial election for that party’s gubernatorial candidate). Delta County had two bonus members from 2018 to 2022. Then, in the 2022 General Election, Delta County had 9,753 voters who voted for the Republican candidate for governor, Heidi Ganahl. So, we lost our two bonus members, reducing our influence in the state party. The current membership of the SCC is around 415 members. The Republicans who do not support Dave Williams he has labeled as “Establishment RINOs.”
From the time Dave Williams was elected as state party chairman he has ignored the county parties. All communication has been emails sent to the entire state central committee, treating all members the same. Whereas the previous state party chair, Kristi Burton Brown, had a monthly Zoom-call with the county chairs. Essentially, Dave Williams has tried to bypass the county leaders and work with his supporters, who are not in leadership roles. The effect of this has been to marginalize the people who are responsible for promoting the party at the county level. This has allowed him to promote his version of what it means to be Republican. Obviously, when 45% of the State Central Committee did not vote for Dave Williams in the March 11, 2023 meeting, there were many Republicans that he needed to convince he was capable of serving as Chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. He has failed in doing that. There are many twists and turns to this story so to keep things from becoming overly complicated, let me just list the basic failures of Dave Williams’ leadership:
Not communicating with county party leadership.
Never presenting a state party financial report.
Not responding to enquiries about state party funds.
Poor fundraising.
Advising other party officers to resign when running for an elected office, but not doing so himself.
Running for the Republican nomination for CD5 and using state party funds and assets to promote himself and attack his opponents.
Attacking corporate media but allowing, and implicitly supporting, the hateful and cowardly RINO WATCH to attack fellow Republicans.
Initiating the bylaw change that resulted in the State Party endorsing and supporting favored candidates during the primary election.
Losing 14 of the 18 races that the State Party endorsed in the primary election, including his trouncing in the CD5 race. (Losses – Ron Hanks for CD3, Dave Williams for CD5, Janak Joshi for CD8, Sandra Larsen for the State Board of Education for CD4, Tim Arvidson for SD2, Rex Tonkins for SD10, Adriana Cuva for SD12, Natalie Abshier for SD23, Jason Lupo for HD20, Jan Koester & Bill Garlington for HD21, Bill Jack for hd45, Trent Lane Leisy for HD 65, David Willson for DA 4th Judicial District, Dagny Van Der Jagt for DA 23rd Judicial District; Winners Rep. Lauren Boebert for CD4, Mark Milliman for HD12, Matt Burcham for HD43, State Senator Kevin Van Winkle for Douglas County Commissioner.)
Creating controversy both internally and externally by sending our extreme controversial messages, unrelated to promoting Republican candidates.
The first nine issues were readily apparent by June of this year. Then on June 3, 2024, Williams sent out an email to the state party mailing list, titled “God Hates Pride” and showed an image of a red-eyed, long-haired man superimposed over a Gay-pride flag with “God Hates Flags” written beside him. The email went on to attack “extreme radical LGBTQ+ groomers” and showed a number of disturbing images of drag-queen and trans-sexual surgeries. This created a firestorm within the Colorado Republican Party and all across Colorado. While the sexual grooming of children is a very real concern, the approach that Williams took was wrong. As a life-long practicing Christian, I was appalled to see Williams attack in God’s name saying He is a hater. This action did not help advance Republican candidates. In fact, it caused some members of county parties to resign. Williams doubled down on this approach in August when the state party sent out a fundraising email for State Senator Cleve Simpson in SD 6 and attacking his Democrat opponent, Vivian Smotherman – a trans-gender woman. Simpson was unaware of the email and has since had to respond to the negative publicity involving the trans-gender issue. On a Zoom call on August 18, 2024 when challenged by the Montezuma County Chair, Lenetta Shull, for sending out fundraising emails for candidates without consulting the candidates, Williams told Shull, “We don’t have time to do that.” Williams has done similar things in other state elections, including Marc Catlin’s race for SD5. These absolutely unnecessary and harmful actions are why we could not wait until next year to remove Dave Williams.
There are additional examples of Williams terrible leadership of our state party, but I’ve made the point. We have been required to address Williams’ negative actions on a continually increasing level, having to make do without any assistance from the state party and still try to run our county party and support our Republican candidates.
To provide some additional information on the controversy, here are the dates, following Williams “God Hates Pride” email, that pertain to the effort to remove Dave Williams as state party chair.
6/7/2024 Jefferson County Chairwoman Nancy Pallozi sends out a petition for SCC members to call for a special meeting to remove Dave Williams.
6/26/2024 Todd Watkins, El Paso County Vice-Chairman, submitted the petition calling for a special meeting of the SCC to consider the removal of Dave Williams. The petition was signed by 113 members (27%) of the SCC. This is in compliance of CRC Bylaws Article VII, Section D (3). Note, the full bylaw is shown at the end of the blog, marked with the asterisk (*) symbol.
6/26/2024 State Party Vice-Chairwoman Hope Scheppelman (In Dave Williams name) sends out a Call for a Special Meeting to be held on Saturday, August 31, 2024. The purpose(s) of the meeting are:
Consideration of a bylaw change concerning fractional voting (won't be implemented until after the 2024 General Election if passed); and
Update concerning open primary lawsuit and consideration of the Party's involvement in future open-primaries; and
Consideration of any potential special meeting petition requests/questions properly submitted.
No other business will be considered.
Note this did not meet the requirement of CRC Bylaws Article VII, Section D (3), that requires the meeting be held within 30 days of the call.
7/2/2024 Hope Scheppelman sends out another email calling for another special meeting to be held on July 19, 2024 at Eagle Park in Bayfield, CO. The call included this message:
*We will gavel in and then immediately recess so we can reconvene the meeting on August 31st in Castle Rock. You are welcome to witness this but there is no need to appear on this day as we are only satisfying procedural and parliamentary requirements to balance all outstanding logistical issues. No business will be conducted. We will only perform a recess so we can continue the meeting at a later date.
Obviously, this meeting was called to try to comply with bylaw Article VII, Section D (3).
7/8/2024 Because Dave Williams had not called for a legitimate special meeting to be held within the required 30 days of the call, Todd Watkins called for a special meeting to be held on July 27, 2024 in Brighton, CO with the purpose of holding a vote to remove the Chairman of the Colorado Republican Committee, consider motions to remove other officers of the Colorado Republican Committee, to immediately elect officers to fill any vacancies created by the removal, resignation, or vacancy of any officer(s).
7/19/2024 – Meeting called by Hope Scheppelman at Eagle Park, Bayfield, CO. Because the meeting could not be held at the pavilion in Eagle Park due to a prior reservation, the meeting was held under a bridge adjacent to the park. Three SCC members were in attendance, insufficient for a quorum (138 members - CRC Bylaws Article VII Meetings, Section F Quorum). The meeting was quickly adjourned. For a news video on the meeting go the following link: https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/local-politics/colorado-gop-leaders-meet-under-a-bridge-to-hide-from-other-members/73-ead79079-0466-46cf-a3a6-518c33c8a915
7/27/2024 – Brighton, CO. Special SCC Meeting called by Todd Watkins. This meeting was cancelled due to a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued by Arapaho County judge, Thomas W. Henderson on July 26, 2024 in response to a petition filed by Dave Williams. A gathering of Republicans was held as a rally. The TRO was cancelled on August 8, 2024 by Judge Henderson. In response, Todd Watkins immediately called for a special meeting to be held in Brighton, CO on August 24, 2024. For media reporting on this see the following link: Order lifted preventing removal of Dave Williams as GOP chair | 9news.com
8/24/2024 – Brighton, CO. Special SCC Meeting called by Todd Watkins. The meeting was attended by 76.66 members of the SCC and those members carried an additional 104 proxies for 181.16 voting members represented at the meeting or 43.65% of the 415 member SCC. (Note, the fractional numbers are because some counties have multiple vice-chairs and they are allowed only a fractional vote.) At the meeting the SCC voted to remove Anna Ferguson, Hope Scheppelman and Dave Williams as Secretary, Vice-Chair and Chair of the Colorado GOP. The votes were similar - 167.3 yes votes to remove Anna Ferguson, 10 no votes; 162.23 yes votes to remove Hope Scheppelman 11 no votes; 161.66 yes votes to remove Dave Williams, 12 no votes. The SCC also voted to elect Eli Bremmer as Chairman (104.14 votes), Brita Horn as Vice-Chairwoman (98 votes) and Kevin McCarney as Secretary (Not sure of the numbers). The SCC also voted to cancel the August 31, 2024 meeting called by Dave Williams.
8/31/2024 - Rock Church in Castle Rock, CO. Special SCC Meeting called by Dave Williams. The vote at the meeting in Castle Rock was 191.5 to 10 against removing Williams, Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman and Secretary Anna Ferguson, with 2.5 votes abstaining. The media were not allowed to attend and there have been no official reports on the actual attendance. This meeting was live-streamed and there is a video of it. The four-hour video is currently available to watch at the following link: Colorado Republican Committee SCC meeting 8/31/2024 (rumble.com). I did not watch the whole video but I did watch enough to see that 150 members were initially credentialed in and they carried 67 proxies for 217 SCC members (52%) represented at the meeting.
Since those two meetings the two factions have filed lawsuits against each other. I believe for clarification purposes I will call the August 24 faction the COGOP faction and the August 31 faction the Dave Williams or DW faction. The COGOP faction has filed a lawsuit in El Paso County to recover the COGOP assets and remove the former officers. Another component of this issue is that both sides have filed with the Republican National Committee (RNC) for their decision on which meeting, and faction, is now the legitimate Colorado Republican Committee. This filing with the RNC is the proper process for making the decision on which faction is the current legitimate Colorado Republican Party.
This has been a lot of information. However, it only represents a fraction of all the emails and phone calls that we on the Delta County Executive Committee have dealt with. I have tried to present pertinent information that will explain how our party got to this point. This has taken me over a week to compose. I hope you understand why the DCRCC has sided with the COGOP faction.
I want to end with a short explanation on why this divisiveness that the DW faction has constantly promoted is so harmful. The Republican Party in Colorado cannot win elections by itself. I presented the following table in the May 6 2024 blog RINO, RINO, RINO: The Attack on the Colorado Republican Party from Within:
The table shows that Republicans number only 26% of registered voters in Colorado and 43% in Delta County. We cannot win elections on our own, even if we get every Republican to vote. And if we are attacking each other that only make the situation worse. We need to get all of our Republican voters to vote and we need to convince the Unaffiliated voters that they need to vote for Republican candidates as well. The DW faction does not recognize these simple mathematics. They have attacked Unaffiliated voters as irrelevant and Republicans who do not agree with them as “Anti-Trump Establishment RINOs.” It is unbelievable and absolutely wrong. Everyone I know in the COGOP totally supports Donald Trump for president. I have heard political pundits proclaim that the Colorado Republican Party is dead – and good riddance. I do not believe that. Damaged maybe, but not dead. Some of us are trying to salvage our party, and all it stands for. May God help us and I hope that this explanation will help you understand how we got to this point.
I want to close by assuring you we have not lost sight of our primary mission. The DCRCC is working hard to elect our Republican candidates in this upcoming election. If you have been attending our monthly meetings you know what efforts we are undertaking to accomplish that. For those of you who do not attend our meetings here are the campaign efforts we are working on:
A. Donated $500 to the 4 candidates in competitive elections:
1. Jeff Hurd in the CD3 election.
2. Sherri Wright in the Colorado State School Board for CD3 election.
3. Marc Catlin in the State Senate District 5 (SD5) election.
4. Larry Don Suckla in the State House District 58 (HD58) election.
B. Hand address postcards to Republicans who did not vote in the 2024 primary election, encouraging them to vote in the November 5, 2024 election.
C. Post card with candidate, judge retention and ballot initiative recommendations, to
Republican and Unaffiliated voters, with a link to our DCRCC website.
D. Advertise on Internet – Instagram, Facebook and You Tube (?)
E. Canvass precinct members. Need the PCPs to help organize and implement this effort.
F. Blog for recommending candidates and why your vote matters. I plan to get this blog our by early October.
Our next DCRCC monthly meeting is going to be on October 1, 2024 at the Surface Creek Community Church in Austin. The meeting starts at 6:00 pm and we try to finish by 7:30 pm. Hope to see you there.
David Bradford
Chairman, Delta County Republican Central Committee
* BYLAWSOF THE COLORADOREPUBLICAN STATE CENTRALCOMMITTEE
Article VII Meetings, Section D. Other Meetings (3) Upon the written request of one-quarter of the voting members. The meeting shall be called by the Chairman within ten days after receipt of such request; if the Chairman fails to do so, any voting member may issue the call at the expense of the CRC. The meeting shall be held within thirty days of the call
PS - Remember you can donate to the Delta County Republican Central Committee, by going to our website https://www.deltacoloradogop.com Since we won’t have a headquarters this year, donations are critical in helping build up our bank account so we have funds for supporting our candidates in the 2024 election. An individual donation of $20 is a great small donation. You can also donate in person at our monthly meeting. Thank you! db
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