The Colorado GOP sent out a pro-Trump mailer this week attacking a congressional primary opponent of party chairman Dave Williams, as well as The Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs, in the latest example of Williams using his party leadership position to benefit or defend himself and his allies.
The mailer, which appears to target El Paso County voters, accused The Gazette of “corrupt campaigning for Nikki Haley and Jeff Crank.”
Haley, a former U.N. ambassador, is running for president against Donald Trump, while Crank, a conservative commentator, is running in the 5th Congressional District Republican primary against Williams.
“The Gazette is bald-face lying about your Colorado Republican Party because they hate President (Donald) Trump and your America First values,” the mailer also said.
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The mailer is prompting Republicans to publicly and privately question Williams’ use of state party money to attack Republican candidates.
“It’s unprecedented,” said Suzanne Taheri, a Republican strategist and Haley supporter who is a former deputy Colorado secretary of state. “It’s certainly unethical … (Wiliams is) targeting his own district to promote himself — using the money from the state fund.”
Rich Sokol, a former Arapahoe County GOP chairman, resigned from the state party’s executive committee late last year over Williams’ use of his party position for personal gain. He blasted the mailer as the latest example of that self-promotion.
“I’m just appalled that Dave Williams would do something like this,” Sokol said. “This is a clear violation of party rules. I and many others have encouraged him to step down as party chair if he wants to remain a candidate.”
Williams responded to questions from The Colorado Sun about the mailer in a text message: “The Colorado Republican Party will no longer allow the liberals at The Gazette to deceive voters.”
When asked about using party resources to attack his opponents, Williams said “we make no apologies for supporting President Trump while exposing the liberal media and these anti-Trump groups who seek to undermine his reelection.”
This mailer isn’t the first time Williams has used his party position for his own benefit. He announced his campaign for the 5th District, which is in El Paso County, through an email to the state party’s distribution list. He’s also criticized Crank and other Republicans in emails from the state party.
The mailer echoed an email the Colorado GOP sent to Republicans this week that told recipients: “Don’t give AFP or Jeff Crank your money or contact information.”
Crank was endorsed last week by AFP — Americans For Prosperity Action, the campaign arm of the national conservative political nonprofit Americans For Prosperity.
One side of the mailer features two prominent pictures of Trump, whom the Colorado Republican Central Committee in January voted to endorse.
The GOP mailer also called The Gazette’s recent report that the party asked the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, which uses Dominion Voting Systems equipment, for help counting ballots at the party’s state assembly in April defamatory. Election conspiracy theorists have made baseless allegations that Dominion Voting Systems, which is based in Denver, manipulated the 2020 presidential election results to deny Trump reelection. Williams has said he believes the 2020 election is stolen.
“The Gazette has become the corrupt political arm of anti-Trump billionaire Phil Anschutz,” the mailer said.
Anschutz, a major Republican donor, owns The Gazette. The publication’s editorial board has been critical of Williams’ leadership of the state party. Gazette Editor Vince Bzdek didn’t respond to a voicemail or email seeking comment.
In a recent email to party members, former state Rep. Ron Hanks, chair of the party’s ballot and election security committee, said paper ballots cast at the GOP’s state assembly will initially be counted by “two 1970s-technology optical readers from Scantron” followed by a hand count.
Also this week, former Boulder County GOP Chairwoman Peg Cage said in an online post that she’s been removed as chair of the committee overseeing vote counting at the assembly because she objects to using machines to tally ballots.