SATURDAY UPDATE: The press takes note of GOP chairman Dave Williams’ assault on his 2022 primary opponent:
I’m not entirely sure what the empty “held accountable” threat means here.
But it sure seems like new Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams is using his role to go after Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, who beat him in the primary. #copolitics https://t.co/nrl8IskNqU
— Spencer Soicher KRDO (@spencersoicher) June 3, 2023
You don’t see this often, a state party criticizing one of their congress members, but CO GOP is doing just that to Rep. Lamborn for voting w/ House GOP leadership & aprox 2/3 of the R caucus to avoid default and cap discretionary spending for 2 years. pic.twitter.com/oQ4Ay9xoky
— Caitlyn Kim (@caitlynkim) June 2, 2023
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Ex-President Donald Trump with Colorado GOP chairman Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams (R).
We took note earlier this week of an email blast from Colorado Republican Party chairman Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams, heaping praise on hard-right Reps. Ken Buck and Lauren Boebert for their opposition to the debt ceiling increase compromise brokered between the White House and GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy while calling on party faithful to “encourage” Rep. Doug Lamborn to vote against the deal.
This morning, after the legislation passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, Williams began by thanking Reps. Buck and Boebert for standing strong against their GOP House Speaker:
The Colorado Republican Party thanks Congressman Ken Buck and Congresswoman Lauren Boebert for forcefully and publicly opposing this debt scheme that the Washington establishment and special interest insiders forced on us.
The thanks to Rep. Boebert come despite her having missed the vote against the compromise she trashed from the outset, for which Boebert has become the butt of nationwide jokes instead of a champion of the resistance. From there, though, much like the missive earlier this week but with far more vitriol now that the deed is done, Dave Williams proceeded to slam his 2022 Republican CD-5 primary opponent Rep. Doug Lamborn in terms that suggest the 2024 primary has already begun:
Deceptively, Congressman Doug Lamborn broke his word and voted to increase our debt while helping Joe Biden continue to fleece American taxpayers…
Colorado Republicans are fed up with say-anything politicians like Doug Lamborn who say one thing to gain power but then do the opposite when they think no one is paying attention. [Pols emphasis]
Our national debt has increased exponentially and we need Republicans in Congress who will actually fight back against this crisis and stop the madness instead of paying lip service.
As readers know, the Colorado Republican Party is currently beset by a major fundraising deficit, which has prevented the party from even meeting its payroll expenses for salaried staff–including Williams personally, who subsidized his personal income as a “legislative aide” despite almost never being present at the state capitol during this year’s session.
Apparently, Williams has determined that the best way forward for the Colorado GOP is to eat their own! In all our years covering Colorado politics, we’ve never seen a sitting Republican Party chairman openly attack one of their own members of Congress, certainly not with this kind of red-meat ferocity. We don’t think we’ve been confronted with exactly the same circumstances as Dave Williams has created as a high-profile primary loser who comes back to win the post of party chairman, but now it’s clear how Williams intends to manage that conflict of interest. He’s not even going to try.
The Colorado Republican Party is now the vehicle for Dave Williams’ personal political aspirations. It’s a vehicle without tires or gasoline, but a vehicle nonetheless.
Brandon Williams must be getting ready to tilt at that dull, dry, wooden windmill called Doug Lamborn.
"The Colorado Republican Party is now the vehicle for Dave Williams’ personal political aspirations."
Hey!
I used to live in that car! …with three band mates and a big, black Labrador Retriever….Boulder…in the 80s…what fun!
Oh, for the love of . . . WTFF? The GOP in this state has [messed] themselves so bad we somehow now have less disgust for a worthlessness like Lamborn than for some other EpCo assclown? Jeee-eee-eee-bus!!
I can't wait for that day when this entire effed up party is finally so small they drown themselves in their own damn bathtub!
Bathtub???
They're more likely to succumb to drowning as they sail down the toilet with the other pieces of shit.
…and they’ll eat the toilet paper before they jump in. They just can’t not.
Meanwhile, thanks to Dave Williams, Tina Peters, Joe Altmann, and their like, the Colorado GOP is essentially broke. What's in your wallet, Dave?
When I moved to Colorado in the early 1990s, I certainly couldn't conceive of a Republican party without funding. Or a Democratic candidate being supported by "Pete Coors and Philip Anschutz, who gave $50,000 and $10,000 respectively."
It will be interesting to see what additional "impossible thoughts" will actually come true.
It was a different world in the early '90's. The GOP had people like Hank Brown, Joel Hefley, Wayne Allard, Dan Schaffer, Chuck Berry, Bill Owens, and shorter Coffman. (Even the arch-conservative Bill Armstrong retired and made way for Hank Brown.)
The only really exotic wingnuts back then were John "Pray for the Mung Beans" Andrews, Charlie Duke, Maryanne Tebedo and Tebedo's offspring.
Yep, Dems took over the legislature under leadership of Andrew Romanoff and Alice Madden and all of a sudden Bill Owens was only the 3rd smartest guy in Colorado politics. What a difference 20 years makes, eh?
And don't forget the "Gang of 4" wealthy donors (Pat Stryker, Malcolm Gill, Russ??) who laid out serious cash to level the playing field with Repubs, and due diligence to recruit credible candidates who spoke to real-world voter concerns. The tremendous urban-suburban population growth on the Front Range also shifted the state demographic. You can draw a pretty striking contrast to the direction of Colorado Repub party over that time.
You mean Pat Stryker, Tim Gill, Jared Polis and Rutt Bridges?
You got it, thanks. Touch of dementia setting in.