What little is left of the Colorado GOP is easily summed up by the defining characteristics of two of its leading standard bearers: cowardice and corruption.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, afraid of a rematch in the district she narrowly won re-election to represent two years ago, hightailed it to another, more Republican district. Dave Williams, the state party chair, has used the ever-shrinking coffers of the party as a slush fund for his own congressional campaign.
It is no wonder the state has rejected the GOP wholesale for the past decade.
Boebert has made a career embarrassing herself, her family, her constituents and her state. While last year’s theater dalliance served as just another reminder of her disdain for ordinary Coloradans, it was not the reason she flipped the finger to voters in the 3rd Congressional District. She knew she had outworn her welcome among voters who almost ousted her in 2022.
Boebert would not have survived a rematch against Adam Frisch. His fundraising dwarfed hers despite the incumbent advantage she should have held. His unexpected appeal to moderate voters and reasonable Republicans brought him within a few hundred votes of winning and could have only climbed in the interim. In 2024, an increase in turnout among Democrats — both because of the presidential election cycle and due to a sense that they could win this time around — would have swamped Boebert.
And then U.S. Rep. Ken Buck announced his retirement from Congress. He probably had not finished his speech before she flung open a suitcase and began searching real estate listings on the other side of the state.
Now Boebert is locked in a primary election that looks a whole lot better for her than the humiliating defeat that surely awaited. She is now the one with a warchest advantage, the anti-Boebert hopefuls continue to split their vote in a fashion akin to the anti-Trump vote in 2016, and a Republican vacancy committee recently made placeholder Greg Lopez its nominee for a special election to complete the remainder of Buck’s term.
The last was a stunning defeat to former state legislator Jerry Sonnenberg, nominally the greatest threat to Boebert’s ambitions. He now looks more like an Eastern Plains version of Don Coram — a Western Slope former legislator whom Boebert pummeled in a primary two years ago — than a credible challenger.
So it was not a surprise last week when Boebert was the only person to make the ballot through the assembly, despite winning only 41% of the vote. Only the best snakeoil salespeople know how to skip town when the mob turns on them and arrive at another prepared to fleece its inhabitants.
Compared to Boebert’s cowardice, though, Williams’ corruption is magnitudes worse.
The former state representative turned state party chair first bilked taxpayers of $30,000 in wages and benefits “working” as a legislative aide in 2023. Williams was not regularly at the state Capitol during that time period and was also serving as the state chair for most of it. Of course, he was also paying himself from the party while reports swirled that it could neither pay its rent nor other employees.
But low-level corruption is beneath Williams. He prefers versions that would make Tammany Hall blush.
After abusing his post to lambast U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a political rival he primaried in 2022, Williams officially announced his campaign for Congress via the official state party communications process. He has since used its resources to pay for news releases, targeted voter mail and attacks on his primary opponents.
Apparently Williams noticed how comfy Boebert felt with disgraced U.S. Rep. George Santos and decided he would attempt to fill the void left at her side after Santos was expelled from the House. How else to explain his blatant corruption?
It seems he will get the chance to do so after a Federal Election Commission complaint was filed against him by longtime GOP communications expert Kelly Maher. If Williams keeps it up, maybe he’ll get his own DOJ investigation as well.
And this was all before Williams had a respected Colorado Sun journalist, who specializes in campaign finance data, ejected from the Republican Party Assembly on Saturday.
Certainly none of it swayed voters at the 5th Congressional District assembly from providing 70% of their votes to put him on the primary ballot. Apparently corruption is even more popular than cowardice in the GOP activist base these days.
While both Boebert and Williams have distinct advantages in their respective elections — including matching endorsements by the GOP Indictee-in-Chief, Donald Trump — neither is a lock to win.
Rational Republicans in Boebert’s new district could reject her as a carpetbagger and unite behind a single opponent in June. Similarly, Williams’ assembly victory might not translate into actual votes over Jeff Crank, a longtime political professional with ties to deep-pocketed conservative funders.
And that is before either has to face a Democratic challenger. Particularly in Williams’ case, that might be a bigger challenge than national experts believe. With a strong Democratic nominee, Williams might do for the 5th CD in 2024 what Boebert did for the 3rd CD in 2022 — make it the country’s closest race.
If the GOP sticks with these two, it may as well have “Cowardice and Corruption” banners printed up for the foreseeable future. That will be all that is left of the once-serious GOP in Colorado.
Mario Nicolais is an attorney and columnist who writes on law enforcement, the legal system, health care and public policy. Follow him on Twitter: @MarioNicolaiEsq.
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