Former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez has pitched his placeholder bid in the special election in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District as a selfless way to prevent Republican infighting during the GOP primary that will be held on the same day.
By choosing him, Lopez told district delegates last month before he was selected as the Republican nominee for the race, the GOP would avoid handing an advantage to anyone also running in the primary.
“If you want to make sure that our party does not kill each other over this next election … vote for somebody who is looking to bring unity into the party,” Lopez said.
But speaking at a Colorado GOP luncheon Tuesday, Lopez — who twice ran unsuccessfully for governor —hinted at another motive for his campaign.
“Don’t be surprised if you see my name again somewhere on the ballot sometime in the future,” he said with a smile.
If elected June 25, Lopez would serve in Congress for only the six months remaining in former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck’s term, which ends in early January. But Lopez said he’s already been making Republican inroads in Washington.
Lopez said he was in D.C. last week, where he visited with a who’s who of Republican members of the House: Speaker Mike Johnson, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff to then-President Donald Trump. Meadows was indicted Wednesday in Arizona in connection with his attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in that state.
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MORE FROM THE LUNCHEON
The luncheon where Lopez spoke was organized by the Colorado GOP and attended by about 100 people. It also featured several Republican candidates but not their primary opponents: Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams, running in the 5th Congressional District; U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, running in the 4th District; former state Rep. Ron Hanks, running in the 3rd District; as well as Dagny Van Der Jagt, running to be the district attorney in the new 23rd Judicial District.
The lineup was the latest example of the state party picking favorites in the primaries, which Williams tried to defend as a way to protect the caucus and assembly process of nominating candidates, citing efforts to do away with the system and move ballot access to petitioning only.
“I could very well be the last chairman to preside over a caucus and assembly process,” he said. “And that’s something that should concern all of us.”
But here’s the thing: Some of the candidates who made the ballot through the caucus and assembly process, and even took top line on the ballot, were not at the luncheon or haven’t received the same full-throated support from Williams and the state GOP.
One of Hanks’ opponents, State Board of Education Member Stephen Varela, for example, won the process and will appear first on the 3rd District Republican primary ballot, but he wasn’t at the luncheon. State Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Fort Lupton, won the nominating assembly in the 8th Congressional District, but his opponent, former state Rep. Janak Joshi, was given the chance to speak at the luncheon. (It’s unclear if Evans and Varela were invited to speak at the luncheon, though the event was open to anyone willing to pay to attend.)
Another key line from Williams: “I would say to you that one of the biggest challenges we have in our party is knowing who’s actually going to advance Republican principles. Far too often we have individuals who campaign on one thing but when they get into power and they think you’re not paying attention they do the opposite.”
WHAT BOEBERT AND HANKS HAD TO SAY
Boebert spoke a lot at the luncheon about House Speaker Mike Johnson and her frustrations with him. But she said she “cannot risk supporting a motion to vacate” the Louisiana Republican from his top role.
“If Mike Johnson is successfully vacated,” she said, “I know that there are at least three, four, five of my corrupt Republican colleagues who would either resign immediately or they would vote for (Minority Leader) Hakeem Jeffries. That would give him the gavel.”
Boebert was asked by someone in the audience if she thought Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Johnson’s chief antagonist, would move forward with a motion to vacate.
“I think there are enough people who are trying to talk her out of that,” Boebert said. “(But) I can’t always guarantee what Marjorie is going to do.”
Meanwhile, Hanks, in his remarks during the luncheon, positioned himself as the most pro-Trump candidate in the Republican primary in the 3rd District.
“I’m the only guy that has a conservative record that is pro-Trump, that wants to go to D.C. solely for the purpose of helping Trump and draining the swamp,” he said, attacking Varela for previously being registered as a Democrat and blasting another GOP rival, Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd, for not supporting Trump enough.
Hanks said he, Williams, Joshi and Boebert are a pro-Trump slate and that they “separate the wheat from the chaff.”
THE NARRATIVE
Julie McCluskie explains her vote on semiautomatic weapons
House Speaker Julie McCluskie told reporters Thursday she voted in favor of a bill that would ban the purchase, sale and transfer of a swath of semiautomatic firearms, defined in the measure as assault weapons, in part because of her experience going through a school lockdown as an administrative employee for the Summit County School District.
McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, recalled how district officials found a bullet casing on school grounds one day.
“Part of my job was responding to crises, helping to train our teachers around active shooters in our schools,” McCluskie told reporters. “It was an incredibly difficult day. It was emotional for our teachers and our kids. I stood there as the kids were evacuated and got on buses, many of them in tears.”
She told The Vail Daily: “I had to make a choice with what I could both believe in and live with. If I were to vote no … and there were to be an act of violence, I would always wonder if I had been able to help in stopping that.”
McCluskie had kept her feelings on House Bill 1292 guarded leading up to the vote earlier this month, telling The Colorado Sun previously that constituents in her mountain district were divided over the measure.
Nine other Democrats —mostly in swing districts — joined all of the chamber’s Republicans in voting against the bill.
McCluskie said the specificity of the weapons addressed through the bill, coupled with the fact that it didn’t outlaw the possession of such firearms, were improvements over a proposal last year that failed to make it out of committee.
The future of this year’s bill remains in doubt. The measure is awaiting a hearing in the Senate State Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, where Sen. Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat who has reservations about a state-level ban on so-called assault weapons, is the swing vote. If the bill makes it out of committee, chamber leaders aren’t sure it has the votes to pass on the floor.
“I don’t think it clearly has 18 votes,” Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, said this week.
DEM INFIGHTING ON ANOTHER GUN BILL
Democrats in the House clashed with their counterparts in the Senate on Thursday over a bill that would impose storage requirements on gun owners who leave their weapons in a vehicle.
Progressive Democrats in the House are furious about amendments added to the legislation in the Senate that would increase penalties on people who steal firearms. Under the changes, it would be a Class 1 misdemeanor to steal a gun, up from a petty-offense for guns worth less than $300, and a Class 6 felony for someone convicted of stealing a gun who then steals another one.
Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat and main House sponsor of the bill, accused the Senate of “playing tricks” and trying to get “revenge” on the House for voting down a bipartisan standalone measure earlier this year that would have increased the criminal penalties for gun theft.
The House narrowly voted 34-27 Thursday to send the measure to a conference committee to work out the differences. McCluskie was one of the Democrats who voted to keep the measure as-is.
Something you should know: State Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, was responsible for the amendment increasing the penalties for stealing a gun to a Class 1 misdemeanor. And he had support from the bill’s main Senate sponsor, Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Boulder County, who said the change was “friendly” and that it fit well into the bill.
Republican Sen. Larry Liston was behind the felony change for repeat offenders, which was adopted on a 19-15 bipartisan vote.
BACKGROUND: Colorado Democrats’ attempt to reduce gun violence is colliding with their criminal justice reform ethos
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
ENDORSEMENTS
Colorado WINS, the state employees union, this week endorsed several Democratic candidates running in competitive statehouse primaries, including Reps. Elisabeth Epps and Tim Hernández and Westminster City Councilman Obi Ezeadi. Ezeadi’s endorsement may be the most interesting. He’s facing Rep. Lindsey Daugherty in the Democratic primary in Senate District 19.
3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd, a Republican running to represent the 3rd Congressional District, refused to tell The Denver Post if he voted for Donald Trump in 2016 or 2020 or if he plans to vote for him this year. “I don’t talk about who I vote for,” Hurd told the newspaper.
JENNA ELLIS, JOHN EASTMAN INDICTED IN ARIZONA
Jenna Ellis, a Colorado attorney and John Eastman, a former University of Colorado visiting scholar, were among those indicted Wednesday in Arizona by a grand jury on felony charges related to their attempts to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 presidential election. The two were also indicted in a Georgia case, with Ellis taking a plea deal. Eastman, who has been representing the Colorado GOP in a federal lawsuit seeking to block unaffiliated voters from casting ballots in the state’s partisan primaries, is in the process of being disbarred in California.
RNC DELEGATE RAFFLES OFF GUEST PASS
Weston Imer, a young GOP operative in Colorado, is raffling off a guest pass to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. People can enter by making a $50 or greater donation to him. Imer, who lives in Golden, serves on the National Youth Advisory Council for the Republican National Committee and also works as an executive assistant to Randy Corporon, a lawyer and RNC committeeman. Imer’s donation page is password protected.
READ MORE
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THIS WEEK’S PODCAST: The long-awaited property tax proposal is unveiled at the Colorado Capitol
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Where the big Colorado donors are spending their money thus far
We periodically run the names on our list of Colorado’s biggest 2022 federal campaign donors through the Federal Election Commission database to see what they’re up to. Here’s what we found:
Of note: We haven’t seen have any donations to Colorado candidates or causes from these folks so far this year.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
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Corrections & Clarifications
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