February 21, 2015 05:17 PM UTC

Former Olympian Throws Himself into GOP Madness

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

The mud wresting is so intense in the battle to lead the state GOP that Republicans may now think that candidates with brute strength, rather than intelligence, are needed to put down their opponents and win.

Enter former Pentathlete Eli Bremer. Pointing to his he former Olympic prowess, the former El Paso Republican Chair announced today that he's running for vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

Unfortunately, Bremer is probably too weak to overpower current vice chair, Mark Baisley, a tea-party candidate who shocked his talk-radio supporters when he aligned himself with current GOP chair Ryan Call, who's seeking his third term.

But who knows? What we do know is the craziness of the characters involved in the race, no matter who wins, has probably already scared big-time GOP donors to such a great extent that they'll be sending their money to outside 527's, forsaking the state party altogether and relegating it to irrelevancy.

In a letter formally announcing his long-rumored candidacy, Bremer wrote:

I spent 12 years competing at the international level representing the United States around the globe and at the Olympic Games.  One of the greatest lessons I learned is that success takes years of preparation and hard work.  It took me over a decade training at an elite level before I qualified for the Olympics.  It was a difficult journey and required constant dedication and sacrifice.  In the same way, the next five years will be incredibly important for Colorado Republicans; but we will work together to achieve our goal of unifying for conservative governance of our great state and nation….

Four years ago, I was elected GOP Chairman in El Paso County.  My prior political experience was as a grassroots organizer founding a Young Republican club that rapidly grew to one of the largest grassroots clubs in the state.  I was the youngest chairman in the state, and I was tasked with overseeing the largest party in the state, serving roughly 20% of all Republicans in Colorado.  I took over an organization bruised by a difficult election, torn by conflict, and sitting on the verge of collapse.  

 In two short years, I got our party out of debt, standardized and professionalized our operations, overhauled our IT system, and grew our fundraising by nearly 10 fold.  Because of our success, I was asked by and assisted numerous other local county parties with fundraising and organizational development.  When my successor took office, he assumed control of an organization ready to perform and grow which it does to this day….

Politics are also about results, and it is important to always see if actions lead to results. Despite nationally abysmal showings by Republicans in 2012, El Paso delivered strong numbers for all our Republican candidates. The true organizational strength was demonstrated the following year when we successfully recalled State Senator John Morse. In a carefully choreographed effort, El Paso County Republican Party played an enormous role in electing Bernie Herpin to replace John Morse and showed that the campaign machine my staff and I created was working as designed. In recognition for our efforts in the recall and the turnaround I conducted in El Paso that helped breed a culture of success, Bernie Herpin has enthusiastically endorsed me.