The forum for Colorado GOP state chair candidates Jeff Hays and George Athanasopoulos at the JeffCo Republican Women’s group forum on March 7 was mostly a wonk-fest, with the candidates each touting their plans to revitalize the Colorado GOP, but there were a few moments when the gloves came off that provided some excitement. The first was when George Athanasopoulos accused Jeff Hays of violating rules by endorsing Joel Miller—an accusation dismissed as a “fraud” by Hays.
According to Athanasopoulos, Jeff Hays “endorsed” a candidate in the non-partisan Colorado Springs City Council race while serving as Chair of El Paso County GOP. Indeed, Hays did support Angela Dougan, the opponent of Joel Miller (who has endorsed Athanasopoulos) in that race, but Hays points out in the following clip that the bylaws do not preclude endorsements in non-partisan races:
There was another gloves-off moment when Athanasopoulos attempted to dismiss his inability to raise money in his losing race against U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO).
Hays responded that raising just $50,000 for a U.S. congressional race was “…piss poor performance if you ask me.” He went on the elaborate that “…a blind dog with a note in its mouth could go raise more money than that.” See the sequence below:
With just a few weeks left to go in the race you can expect that things will heat up even more. Hopefully, someone will be taping it.
