“Fraudulent meeting:” Removed Colorado GOP chairman challenges vote after new chair voted in
DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) - On Saturday, many members of the State GOP met with attorneys to vote the current GOP Chairman Dave Williams out. Now, it seems there is disagreement about whether that meeting was legal.
The meeting came after months of turmoil in the State GOP after Dave Williams made comments publicly and on social media regarding Pride month and promoted other agendas certain members deemed harmful. Party members say he also "took sides" in certain important primary election battlegrounds, leading to deeper party division.
"The former leadership who has been fighting against us had literally been attacking our candidates. I talked to a candidate last week who told me just last week, based on the actions of the Republican Party, they had nearly $20,000 of donors pulled back from them because they were so appalled by the behavior of the officers of the Republican Party," Eli Bremer said.
Republican party members voted Bremer in on Saturday, though a majority of the party was not present.
"it's very rare for us to get a majority at any meeting of the Colorado Republican Party ... there were a lot of folks that were sort of in the western Slope and outlying counties that were not able to make it out," Bremer said. "We were well beyond the quorum legal requirement. And so the party was able to conduct its business."
After a meeting was scheduled to oust Williams, he sued two of the Republican party members leading the charge and then was granted a restraining order, effectively pausing the effort to get him out of leadership in July.
In an email sent to party members Saturday, the GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman calls the meeting "Fake," pointing towards an August 31st meeting that "abides by party rules." The email states that all members will respect the outcome of that meeting.
However, Bremer says Saturday's meeting was official party business and entirely legal.
"That [August 31st] meeting was actually canceled," Bremer countered. "The meeting that we held yesterday, which was a legal meeting, again, we had three attorneys in the front of the room, the former state party chair, Kristi Burton Brown, served as an advisor, the top Republican attorney in the state, Chris Murray served as the legal advisor and the former secretary of state. Attorney Wayne Williams served as the parliamentary head."
He continued on to say that the State Central Committee had canceled the August 31st meeting.
However, Scheppelman countered in the Saturday email that the Republican National Committee Parliamentarian has rendered an opinion countering the meeting.
"The meetings scheduled by Watkins et al for both July 27 and August 24 are illegitimate and any action taken there was or will be null and void because they do not constitute properly called meetings of the CRC."
- Al Gage
"With all respect to Mr. Gage," Bremer said. "His facts were completely wrong. They were you know, I read his report. There were just demonstrable facts wrong."
Bremer said he will not be attending the August 31st meeting.
Dave Williams released this statement to KRDO13 regarding the controversy.
“A fringe element of our State Party, who has now proven that they do not care about electing Trump this November, held a fraudulent meeting today with 77 people in actual attendance (who also brought with them 104 questionable proxies).
And they even had to amend their already broken rules while illegally re-interpreting our bylaws to improperly attempt to remove all of your duly elected officers without even a majority of our members present.
They clearly don't have 3/5th of the entire body to remove anyone but that won't stop them from harming the Party further while wasting time with nearly 70 days to go in the election.
The Republican National Committee Parliamentarian, Al Gage, has already rendered an opinion:
- Dave Williams
"The meetings scheduled by Watkins et al for both July 27 and August 24 are illegitimate and any action taken there was or will be null and void because they do not constitute properly called meetings of the CRC."
This is a developing story. KRDO13 will continue to update as more information is available.
