A Denver judge on Wednesday evening rejected an effort to end state Sen. Don Coram’s GOP primary bid against U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.
Denver District Court Judge Alex C. Myers ruled that the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office did not inappropriately place Coram, a Montrose Republican, on the June 28 primary ballot.
A lawsuit filed by a group that includes a man who has tried to discredit Coram and another who has donated to Boebert’s campaign alleged that 390 of the 1,568 petition signatures submitted by Coram and accepted by the Secretary of State’s Office were flawed. If the judge agreed, Coram would have fallen below the 1,500-signature threshold he needed to meet to make the primary ballot.
But Myers, in a 14-page ruling, found that only 19 of the signatures accepted by the Secretary of State’s Office should have been rejected, not enough to disqualify Coram from the primary.
The lawsuit was filed by David “Dee” Laird, Dale Ruggles, Mandy Roberts and Bryon Roberts, all voters in Boebert’s 3rd Congressional District.
Ruggles donated $250 to Boebert’s campaign in February 2021.
Laird, of Montrose, wrote nearly identical letters to The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and The Durango Herald in March criticizing Coram for trying to access the ballot by collecting petition signatures instead of going the caucus and assembly route.
“Before being cajoled into signing his petition, voters should take a few moments to educate themselves and do their own background check on Coram. Check out corruptcoram.com,” Laird wrote in both letters.
Corruptcoram.com is a website created by Boebert’s campaign to dubiously attack Coram, who is also from Montrose, over his work on hemp policy at the Colorado Capitol, calling it self-dealing because the state lawmaker once cultivated hemp himself.
The site is part of a broader advertising initiative by Boebert, who lives in Garfield County, targeting Coram ahead of the primary.
Neither the plaintiffs nor their attorneys would say who funded the lawsuit. Boebert’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Boebert’s reelection bid has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. She is facing scrutiny this week after, according to The New York Times, a former White House aide told the U.S. House committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that she was among several Republican members of Congress who were involved in White House discussions about trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Also on Wednesday another Denver judge rejected an effort by Republican state Rep. Dave Williams to be listed on the 5th Congressional District GOP primary ballot as Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams. Let’s go Brandon is code for “f&%k Joe Biden.”
Williams said he will appeal the ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court.