There may be an answer before Election Day as to who is the real chairman of the Colorado GOP.
A judge in El Paso County this week set a two-and-a-half day trial starting Oct. 14 in the lawsuit filed by Eli Bremer seeking to dislodge Dave Williams from the party’s top post and force him to relinquish the party’s resources. Both Bremer and Williams claim to currently be chairman of the Colorado GOP.
The date of the trial won’t leave much time for the outcome to have an effect on the Nov. 5 election. Ballots start being mailed to voters Oct. 11. Most television ad air time and mailers will have been planned and booked by then.
Still, the outcome of the legal drama will chart the future direction of the state Republican Party.
Williams, a former state representative, was elected chairman of the Colorado GOP in March 2023. But after a string of controversial decisions — including using state party resources for his failed congressional campaign this year, endorsing in Republican primaries and sending out anti-LGBTQ emails — a faction of the Colorado GOP’s central committee has sought his ouster.
On Aug. 24, Williams’ opponents held a meeting where they voted to remove and replace Williams with Bremer, an ex-Olympian and former chairman of the El Paso County GOP who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2022.
Williams and his allies have called the Aug. 24 meeting a sham and refused to recognize the results.
Attorneys for Williams sought to push the trial until after Election Day, arguing they were too busy with personal and professional commitments to prepare for a trial before Nov. 5.
“I think there isn’t really a need for speed,” said Michael Molina, another attorney for Williams, claiming that most of the “heavy lifting” for the election had already been completed.
El Paso County District Court Judge Eric Bentley, however, sided with Bremer’s attorney, Chris Murray, and said the case should be resolved sooner rather than later.
“It appears self-evident that the Republican state committee cannot function as intended without its leadership issue resolved,” Bentley said. “It is necessary in order for the party apparatus to function as intended — as a state party — before the election that this issue be resolved before the election.”
The state party’s campaign finance reports don’t indicate the Colorado GOP under Williams’ leadership is doing much to help its general election candidates as November approaches. There have been some emails sent out and a few Zoom calls held, but that’s about it.
Many campaigns don’t trust Williams, and the National Republican Congressional Committee, which would normally coordinate with the party, is siding with Bremer in the leadership dispute.
The Republican National Committee so far hasn’t waded into the dispute as it goes through the courts. But there is precedent for the RNC settling leadership squabbles; earlier this year the national party chose who would lead the state GOP in Michigan.
The controversy comes at a critical time for Colorado Republicans. The party’s candidates could use all the help they can get in an election year where the GOP is trying to win back some power at the state and federal levels after years of defeat. Republicans almost certainly can’t win back majorities in Colorado, but the party can bolster its ranks to be a more effective check on the Democratic juggernaut.
One issue at play in the El Paso County lawsuit is that David Pigott, another attorney for Williams, argued in court this week that he is the real attorney for the Colorado GOP, not Murray, who filed Bremer’s lawsuit on behalf of the party.
Pigott is seeking to get the case tossed by arguing that technical point.
Pigott is representing Williams and the Colorado GOP in a separate lawsuit filed in Arapahoe County by Williams against his opponents, who are being represented by Murray. In that case, Williams is seeking to invalidate the results of the Aug. 24 meeting where he was removed from his post as chair.
Judge Bentley ruled that Murray can represent the party for now while the case is being adjudicated.