May 22, 2023 01:36 PM UTC

Republicans Reflect on Colorado Springs Mayoral Race

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• by: Sean Beedle

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Pundits and politicos across the country have heralded the victory of Yemi Mobolade over Republican Wayne Williams in the Colorado Springs mayoral race as a great win for progressive Democrats in Colorado Springs, despite the fact that Mobolade is not a Democrat and has a history of union-busting and wage theft as a business owner.

“We figured it would be close, but we didn’t certainly expect it would be a landslide victory for [Mobolade],” said Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams during a May 17 appearance on George Brauchler’s radio show. “That’s something that we should all be concerned with — a wake-up call for us.”

Williams credits Mobolade’s victory in part to dissension among Colorado Springs Republicans. “There was not a consensus Republican pick right after that first round,” he said. “I think that really did a lot of damage to Wayne. Then, of course, there was the negative campaigning that really beat up Wayne during that first round due to some internal, local, developer fights where they were picking sides. No one laid a finger on [Mobolade], so [Mobolade] got to benefit from just positive campaigning while Wayne was on its heels the whole time.”

Much of the opposition against Williams came not from liberals or progressives, but the rabid faction of election-deniers and “RINO hunters” who have supported Dave Williams and embattled El Paso County GOP Chair Vickie Tonkins. Wayne Williams’ ties to Runbeck Election Systems have made him, and his wife, El Paso County Commissioner Holly Williams, central figures in local election conspiracies and the target of perennial defamation lawsuit defendant Joe Oltmann, whose vocal support for fringe candidates like Tina Peters and Ron Hanks have proved disastrous for Colorado’s Republican party.

“I mean, doing a doing a commercial with [Colorado Secretary of State] Jena Griswold [D] as well, that didn’t help him amongst the base,” admitted Dave Williams.

Former Colorado GOP Chair Dick Wadhams was more direct in his assessment of mayoral race.

“Everything was falling in line for the effort for [Mobolade],” said Wadhams, who followed Williams on the same Brauchler radio show. “Frankly, the El Paso County Republican Party can be charitably called a dumpster fire for the last several elections. I mean, the divisions within the party, the lawsuits flying around and that didn’t help either. But [Mobolade] ran in many ways a perfect campaign. He did not run as a Democrat.”

Wadhams saw the writing on the wall after last year’s poor performance for Republicans in El Paso County, and credits Mobolade’s victory more to unaffiliated voters than Democrats. “In 2022, our candidates for U.S. Senate and secretary of state, and the attorney general and treasurer, only got 52% in El Paso [County],” he said. “When a Republican statewide candidate only gets 52% [in El Paso County], that is a huge defeat. Clearly, there has been a shift among unaffiliated voters. Right now in El Paso County — these are numbers as of May 1st — there are 86,000 Democrats, 147,000 Republicans. And get this: 228,000 unaffiliated voters.”

Wadhams blames much of the unaffiliated shift on Republican support for former President Donald Trump. “El Paso County is not a Republican stronghold any more,” he said. “As we’ve seen across the state, whether it be Jefferson [County], Arapahoe [County] or any part of the state, unaffiliated voters cut against us in the last three election cycles because of their antipathy to Donald Trump, and anybody who tries to disagree with that is they’re living in a dream world. I guess as long as our party is defined by Donald Trump, in Colorado, these unaffiliated voters are going to continue to abandon us, not only in this mayor’s race in the spring, but in every election in competitive legislative races and every other race up and down.”

Mobolade described his goals and vision as mayor during a Wednesday appearance on former Republican, but still a Trump supporter, Mandy Connell’s radio show. “What resonates with my leadership is a vision and ideas that transcend party politics and to put our quality of life ahead of party politics,” he said. “That is a starting point. We start from that place and we work backwards, and if the idea or the solution ends up being conservative, it is because that’s what our city needs, not because it’s conservative. Yes, we check that box, it’s conservative. And if the solution that benefits our city sounds more liberal. It’s not because it’s liberal, it’s because that’s what our city needs. And it just so happens to check that box. This is how I’m going to be leading our city.”