This story by Sara Wilson appeared on Colorado Newsline on September 26, 2024.
An El Paso County judge determined that opponents of Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams did not have enough votes to remove him during an August meeting.
That means Williams is likely to remain chair for the foreseeable future, even as a faction of the party view Eli Bremer as their leader and a chorus of elected Republicans call on Williams to resign.
El Paso County District Judge Eric Bentley wrote in an order on Wednesday night that actions to remove Williams as chair and install Bremer at an August 24 meeting in Brighton were not valid. He specifically decided on a grammatically-confusing party bylaw that outlines the number of votes needed to remove an officer.
That bylaw states that “Any elected officer of the CRC may be removed from office at any time for whatever cause the CRC may deem sufficient, by a vote of three-fifths of the entire membership of the CRC eligible to vote at a meeting called for that purpose.”
Bentley decided that three-fifths of the entire 414 member Colorado GOP central committee — 248 people — would need to vote on Williams’ removal, not just three-fifths of the members present at the meeting as the Brighton organizers determined. About 160 people voted to oust Williams at that meeting.
The meeting attendees also voted to remove Hope Scheppelman, the vice chair, and Anna Ferguson, the secretary.
“Defendants’ interpretation of (the bylaw) is straightforward and does not require the court to insert words that were not used or to ignore words that were used. Simply put, in order to remove an officer, there must be a vote of 3/5 of the entire eligible CRC voting membership, and the vote must take place at a meeting called for that purpose,” he wrote.
A quorum is one-third of the entire committee. So if three-fifths of that quorum could vote on an officer’s removal, Bentley wrote, that would give a minority an implausible amount of power.
“The reference to the ‘entire membership’ signifies the seriousness with which the drafters appear to have considered the prospect of a vote to remove any of the CRC’s elected officers before completion of their two-year term,” he wrote.
One week after the Brighton meeting, Williams led another meeting in order to hold a vote to affirm his as chair.
The order came in a lawsuit between Williams and Bremer to settle who is the rightful GOP chair. It was set to go to trial in mid-October, but now the primary legal questions posed by Bremer and his allies have been settled in the order. The trial is still listed in the case schedule as of Thursday afternoon.
Critics of Williams have been seeking his removal from the chairmanship since June, motivated by his handling of party finances, use of party resources to prop up his failed congressional run, endorsements of favored Republicans in primaries, and homophobic comments during Pride month. At the August meeting, there was an optimistic atmosphere that Bremer could right the ship ahead of a handful of consequential congressional and state house races in November. Bremer has since worked with candidates and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Bremer said the order was unexpected and that he is conferring with his attorneys on next steps.
“The idea that (bylaw writers) would make it so difficult to remove a chair that a that a quorum couldn’t conduct the business — I think that that’s an irrational position,” he said. “If you look at the bylaw in the context of history, I’m not even sure there’s doubt about this.”
In an email to the central committee after the order, Williams wrote that the “true” state party officers will seek legal accountability against “those who worked in the shadows to sow chaos and orchestrate an unlawful coup against the majority will.”
“While we will seek legal accountability against these failed usurpers, the rest of our state party must unite to defeat the radical Democrats with the remaining time we have left before November,” he wrote.
The next reorganization meeting to choose leadership for the Colorado GOP will be in March 2025.