November 15, 2006 07:45 PM UTC

Moderate Republicans' Putsch Underway

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• by: Colorado Pols

A harbinger of things to come across the state in yesterday’s Durango Herald:

In a move she said is aimed at widening the tent for Republicans in La Plata County after historic defeats for the party locally and nationally, Ellen Roberts has called on the party’s county chairwoman to resign.

But Shannon Richardson is not going without a fight.

Roberts said Monday the message of the November election was that the party should welcome both moderates and conservatives.

“I think that’s what the original founders of the party were looking for,” she said.

Roberts stated in a letter to The Durango Herald that Richardson, who is to the right of the moderate Roberts, had displayed an “intolerance of different viewpoints within the party.”

She said Monday she believed some members of the local party had worked against her election, an effort that included what her letter called a possible “fratricide attempt,” in which mailers were sent out anonymously misstating Roberts’ stance on abortion…