BAYFIELD, Colo. — Money. Power. Drama. Those are key elements of a soap opera.
Political spending. Trying to oust the top boss. Drama. Those are also key elements of a soap opera and the current state of the Colorado GOP.
There is ongoing internal fighting within the party.
Late last month, El Paso County Republican Party Vice Chair Todd Watkins submitted to the party 112 names of central committee members that he said supported an effort to hold a vote to oust chairman Dave Williams.
Watkins has refused to share the petition with 9NEWS. The party held a hearing earlier this month that resulted in the petition being deemed invalid because it only contained names, not a paper trail showing those people provided their support.
Nonetheless, the submission of the petition started a clock that required a meeting to be held within a certain amount of time. That is why Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman called a meeting for July 19 at a park in far southwest Colorado in Bayfield, where she lives.
When the party deemed the petition invalid, the executive committee supported canceling the July 19 meeting. Yet, it still happened. For four minutes and 40 seconds, the Colorado GOP held a meeting on a bike path, under a bridge in Bayfield. But first, they had to get out of the way of a maintenance truck using the trail.
"This special meeting of the Colorado Republican Committee is called to order,” Scheppelman said.
There were four members from the GOP and two observers.
"I have three SSCC members out of 415 total members present,” Scheppelman said regarding central committee members.
The meeting quickly ended.
"Since there is no quorum present to conduct any further business...” Scheppelman said.
It was adjourned until Aug. 31 at 9 a.m. at The Rock Church in Castle Rock.
The meeting served its purpose, to fulfill a timeline set by a petition to try to oust the chairman that has already been deemed insufficient. Watkins has called his own party meeting for Saturday at a church in Brighton. The Colorado GOP sued Watkins in Arapahoe County court to prevent a meeting “fraudulently conducted as ‘official business.’”
Campaign finance reports revealed
The Colorado Republican Party’s campaign finance report was also made available over the weekend.
It showed that the party made two additional $19,000 payments for mailers and postage for mailers in support of Williams’ 5th Congressional District campaign. Williams lost his primary to Jeff Crank by 30 points. The party paid more than $58,000 for mailers and postage supporting Williams.
Here is what Williams told 9NEWS last month in an interview with Marshall Zelinger.
(Editor's note: This interview has been edited for context and clarity.)
Zelinger: So, when the finances come out, we're going to see $0 spent to benefit Dave Williams' CD5 campaign, and $0 spent for any of the other endorsed candidates?
Williams: You're not going to see anything like that.
The finance report shows more than $58,000. It also showed a $60,000 payment from the Dave Williams for Colorado campaign to the Colorado Republican Party. The memo line showed “candidate committee donation.”
The Colorado GOP gets a discount on postage from the United States Postal Service. The party, as a nonprofit, can pay a discounted rate for campaign mailers, as long as the candidate does not reimburse the party for the postage.
In a phone call on Tuesday, Colorado GOP Treasurer Tom Bjorkland would not say if any of that $60,000 was to reimburse the party for postage.
"Williams made a donation," Bjorkland said. "That's all I can tell you,”
Williams and Scheppelman did not return voicemails left early Tuesday afternoon.