A bipartisan group of political and business heavyweights, including former Colorado governors Roy Romer, Bill Owens, and Bill Ritter, is supporting Secretary of State Jena Griswold in her defense against a lawsuit authorized by the Colorado Republican Party and filed by a group of hard-right Republicans, including state Rep. Ron Hanks (CO Springs), and congressional candidate Laurel Imer.
The GOP lawsuit alleges that Colorado’s law allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in primary elections is unconstitutional. It was filed Feb. 24, following a unanimous vote last September by the Colorado Republican Party’s Central Committee authorizing the suit.
The motion to file a brief in support of Griswold, a Democrat, was filed today by, among others, former governors Bill Owens and Bill Ritter, former Denver Chamber of Commerce President Kelly Brough, former Sen. Hank Brown (R-CO), Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, philanthropist Dan Ritchie, former state lawmaker Chris Romer, and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers. The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce is also named.
The lawsuit was filed by Republican candidates and party officials, most of whom are election conspiracists, including state Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Cañon City), who is running for U.S. Senate, Laurel Imer, who is running for the Seventh Congressional District, and a group of GOP State Central Committee Bonus Members calling itself PARABLE. Representing the plaintiffs are a pair of election conspiracist attorneys, Randy Corporon, who also serves on the Colorado GOP’s executive committee as Republican National Committeeman, and former Trump lawyer John Eastman, who’s said the lawsuit would not impact the November election. Yet, the plaintiffs are seeking summary judgment, which would allow it to take effect before the election. The lawsuit is being funded by Eastman’s Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.
Corporon is also representing Eastman in a separate lawsuit he plans to file against his former employer, the University of Colorado at Boulder. He’s seeking nearly two million dollars, claiming CU’s response to his role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election constituted defamation and violation of his First Amendment rights.
Yesterday the plaintiffs also submitted the list of witnesses they intend to call: former Secretary Of State Scott Gessler, and an “active or former clerk and recorder to be named prior to the hearing.”
A third potential witness has since proved unnecessary after the parties stipulated to the vote record from last September’s GOP Central Committee meeting.
Corporon and Gessler are both currently representing Mesa County Clerk & Recorder Tina Peters, who has been charged with numerous election-related felonies related to tampering with her own county’s voting equipment as well as multiple state ethics violations. Corporon is defending Peters on the criminal charges, while Gessler is representing her on the ethics complaints.
A PDF of the full motion can be downloaded from the link below:
