A judge Tuesday cleared the way for opponents of Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams to hold a gathering in about two weeks to vote on whether the embattled leader should be removed and replaced.
Arapahoe County District Court Judge Thomas Willard Henderson IV rescinded the temporary restraining order he issued last month blocking the gathering.
Henderson wrote in his ruling Tuesday, which was issued after a hearing earlier in the day, that he was wrong to issue the order in the first place because he lacked jurisdiction.
Henderson’s decision opens the door for a meeting of the Colorado GOP’s central committee in as few as 15 days to consider a motion to remove Williams, whose work as chairman has been marred by accusations of self-dealing and disorganization. Indeed, immediately after Henderson issued his ruling the gathering was scheduled for Aug. 24.
One-third of the committee will need to be present for any vote taken during the gathering to be considered valid, though 60% of the entire central committee will have to vote to remove Williams for the effort to be successful.
Williams filed a lawsuit in Arapahoe County last month seeking to block a meeting scheduled for July 27 at a church in Brighton to consider whether to oust him, citing a ruling by the Colorado GOP’s executive committee that the gathering was invalid. The executive committee has a maximum of 25 members, most of them allies of Williams, whereas the central committee is comprised of as many as 400 people.
The meeting to consider the motion to oust Williams was organized by El Paso County GOP Vice Chairman Todd Watkins and Jefferson County GOP Chairwoman Nancy Pallozzi, who are the defendants in Williams’ suit. The pair gathered support from more than a quarter of the central committee to force the meeting, which the executive committee said it couldn’t verify and used as the basis for ruling the meeting invalid.
Henderson issued his temporary restraining order July 26. The meeting in Brighton a day later was transformed into a forum for the list of candidates vying to replace Williams as chairman. Republicans also used the occasion to air their grievances against Williams.
This week, Pallozzi and Watkins asked Henderson to reconsider his order, forcing the hearing Tuesday.
Chris Murray, a former longtime lawyer for the Colorado GOP, is representing Pallozzi and Watkins in the case. He argued that state law says only the party itself – and specifically the GOP central committee – can work out controversies, making Henderson’s ruling inappropriate.
“This court lacks, as a fundamental matter, jurisdiction over this case,” Murray said.
Murray also argued that if Henderson were to uphold his ruling, it would effectively give the executive committee carte blanche to protect the chairman against efforts to remove him.
“That is not how the bylaws of the Colorado Republican committee work,” he said.
David Pigott, a lawyer for Williams, said he wasn’t asking the court to solve an internal controversy, but rather enforce the executive committee’s decision.
“We are asking the court’s assistance in enforcing the (executive) committee’s decision,” Pigott said. “We’re not asking you to decide the controversy.”
Henderson said when he issued the temporary restraining order, he thought he was enforcing a decision by the central committee, not the executive committee’s ruling. In the ruling he handed down Tuesday, he acknowledged that misunderstanding.
“When a dispute is within the jurisdiction of the state central committee of a political party, that central committee is the ‘sole tribunal to determine such controversies,’ and as a ‘necessary sequence, the courts do not have concurrent jurisdiction in the premises,'” Henderson wrote, citing the law. “The disputes here at issue … are clearly internal controversies within the jurisdiction of the CRC to make a final determination.”
Williams didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday night. Neither did Colorado GOP Vice Chairwoman Hope Scheppelman.
But in an unsigned email to central committee members, party leadership brushed off the ruling.
“Your state party will not sit idly by while Watkins violates proper process and procedure,” the email said. “If anyone wants a special meeting for whatever purpose then they must follow the rules to do so.”
The central committee was already scheduled to meet on Aug. 31 in Castle Rock, but it seemed the question of whether to remove Williams might not come up because of the executive committee’s determination that the effort by Watkins and Pallozzi to remove the chairman was invalid.
The Aug. 24 meeting will allow Williams’ opponents to try to sidestep any attempt by the chairman’s allies to stop the vote.
Six of the state’s eight Republican congressional candidates, as well as state Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, signed a letter late last month urging Williams to resign.
Additionally, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Windsor Republican, suggested in a Facebook post that Williams should step down.
“The past month of public dissension and infighting in the Colorado Republican Party has been embarrassing to watch as we have a golden opportunity this November to flip seats at every level of government,” she wrote. “This isn’t about competing policies or ideologies; this is about a failure from Chairman Williams to lead after our primary election and simply reach out to candidates and organizations throughout Colorado and beyond to offer support, mend bridges, and present a clear game plan of how we can win together in November.”
Williams was elected chairman in March 2021 and almost immediately began taking flak for his leadership.
He first faced blowback for the party’s lackluster fundraising and because he was working as a full-time aide to a Republican state lawmaker while leading the state Republican Party.
The criticism intensified as he launched an unsuccessful run for Congress this year.
When U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, announced in January that he would step aside, Williams used the state party email to announce that he would run for the 5th Congressional District seat in El Paso County. Williams rejected calls to step down as party chairman while he campaigned, and then spent party money to criticize his opponent, conservative commentator and activist Jeff Crank.
In April, Williams had a Colorado Sun reporter tossed out of the state party assembly. The party also sent out a homophobic email during Pride month calling for people to burn Pride flags.
Then, for the first time in recent memory, if ever, the Colorado GOP endorsed candidates in competitive primary elections, drawing anger from many in the party. Of the 18 candidates endorsed by the party, only four won their contests.
The party also spent $58,000 in late May and early June sending mailers urging voters to support Williams and criticizing Crank. Williams donated $60,000 to the party from his campaign account in June, which posed questions about whether the mailers and the apparent reimbursement represented a violation of federal postal regulations.
Williams lost to Crank in the Republican primary in the 5th District by roughly a two-to-one margin.
