Following calls by Colorado Republican executive officers for Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to suspend her statewide campaign for Secretary of State in response to a ten-count indictment filed against her, members of the GOP State Executive and State Central Committees are criticizing the move as a violation of neutrality in primary campaigns, and at least one is urging the GOP chair, Kristi Burton Brown, to resign or be removed from her position.
Colorado’s Republican National Committeeman Randy Corporon announced on his KNUS radio show Saturday that he and John Eastman, the embattled Trump attorney and plaintiff in a lawsuit against the University of Colorado, will announce on Friday their filing of a new lawsuit against the state of Colorado over the voter-approved constitutional statute mandating open primary elections for the two major parties.
Former Colorado Republican leader Dick Wadhams “would not be surprised” if over 50% of the governing body of the Colorado Republican Party votes Saturday not to participate in open primaries anymore, falling short of the 75% that’s legally required to dump open primaries but setting the table for GOP activists to file a lawsuit that could overturn the 75% threshold and allow Republicans to eschew primaries as early as next year.
Grassroots activist leaders in the Colorado Republican Party have new hope in overcoming legal and financial barriers in their 5-year quest to withdraw from open primaries in Colorado, with an apparent offer of discounted legal representation in challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 108, a state law instituted by voters in 2016 that regulates how parties can choose their nominees for state elected office.
With a crucial vote coming before the Colorado Republican Party’s state central committee next month on whether to continue allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in Republican primary elections, recent voting records of that governing body indicate that grassroots Republicans hold power over establishment members, and could indicate that the state GOP will opt out of open primary elections.
