April 09, 2025 02:12 PM UTC

In Douglas County, The Backstabbing Is Forever

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Mystery solved! Former DougCo commissioner Lora Thomas is running for a seat on the Highlands Ranch Metro District Board of Directors. Thomas’ committee registration form was filed with the Secretary of State yesterday.

And the knives are already out.

—–

Few contemporary tales of intra-Republican infighting quite match the last few years in Colorado’s exurban Douglas County, where the all-GOP county commission has found endless subjects to acrimoniously bicker about among themselves without any Democrats in they room to pick on. Former GOP DougCo commish Lora Thomas in particular served the county in a state of more or less continuous conflict with her fellow commissioners for her whole tenure in office, and when we last heard about Thomas in December, she was resigning her term-limited seat several weeks early as a final petty grievance played out. CBS Denver’s Olivia Young reported then:

Thomas was term-limited and could not run for re-election this year. Her term was set to end on Jan. 14 when her successor, Kevin Van Winkle, takes office. But on Friday, Thomas chose to end her time as commissioner nearly six weeks early after she says the other two commissioners tried to “evict” her from her office…

For years, the board of Douglas County commissioners has been marked by infighting among its three Republican members. In 2022, Thomas was suspended as commission chair. Months later, she accused her colleagues of “smears and slander.”

“I have had little power to do anything for four years. They have blocked me. They have refused to allow me to nominate people to serve on boards and commissions. Basically, Teal and Laydon pick whomever they want, because they will be rubber stamps for whatever Teal and Laydon want,” Thomas said. “They’ve stripped me off boards and commissions with no evidence. This has just been nothing more than harassment.”

One of the biggest issues that Thomas came into conflict with her colleagues over was the so-called “Renewable Water Resources” scheme to pipe water from the San Luis Valley to supply thirsty Douglas County residential development. Over the years, various exit strategies for Thomas, including runs for DougCo sheriff or a no-win bid against Rep. Jason Crow sputtered out, and last year Thomas lost the Republican primary to challenge incumbent semi-Democratic Rep. Bob Marshall.

All of that we would have thought would have meant the end of Thomas’ career in electoral politics. But it looks like somebody out there sees reason to spend hard currency kicking Thomas on her way out the door to civilian life:

We’ve been covering politics for many years, but we’re not sure we’ve ever seen a mail piece in Colorado politics attacking someone who is not only out of office but not as of this writing even a candidate for elected office? It’s possible this expenditure has its basis in a rumor we haven’t yet heard, but you’ve got to really, really dislike someone to shell out for a mailed attack ad based on some speculative future action Lora Thomas might take.

And, well, we suppose Lora Thomas may have indeed made some enemies this devoted. To which we can only say, hell hath no fury like a fellow Republican scorned.