Watching the Colorado GOP light itself on fire, again, is like watching a guy rev his truck in neutral and brag about the horsepower. Loud, dramatic, and going nowhere.
Colorado Politics lays out the latest episode: a party officer says a no-confidence vote against state chair Brita Horn can proceed, while Horn says the attempt to call a state central committee meeting is invalid under party bylaws. This is happening inside the state party leadership, while everyone swears they are totally focused on winning elections. Sure.
Meanwhile, a vice chair is resigning because it is impossible to work with her, the secretary changed his mind about a prior ruling, and the whole thing is turning into a rulebook knife fight. Nothing says “big tent” like arguing over who gets to call the meeting to argue.
The Bullet Point Brief
- A party officer said a move to hold a no-confidence vote on chair Brita Horn can proceed.
- Horn says the meeting effort is invalid because it did not comply with party bylaws, and she says the issue was settled by the executive committee.
- The petition organizer says he is sticking with the party secretary’s interpretation and plans to schedule the meeting later this month.
- Vice chair Richard Holtorf says he will resign at the end of February, citing inability to work with Horn, and he is the second vice chair to step down in seven months.
- The petition agenda includes freezing party spending until fundraising improves and a motion to cease legal action tied to earlier internal disputes.
My Bottom Line
I had lunch with a couple of insiders today and, yes, it stinks. It’s that simple. When the public is trying to figure out groceries and gas, the party is busy doing parliamentary gymnastics like it’s a competitive sport. The only thing we are “relentlessly” growing is the pile of self-inflicted wounds.
Here’s the part they skip: in Colorado, the petition process lets candidates get ballot access without going through caucus and assembly. So you really do have to ask, what good is the party to me? If the party is not building a farm team, raising money, and helping candidates win, then it is basically a logo and an email list with opinions.
And let’s not pretend the brand is helping right now. The party is nothing more than a brand, and in Colorado, the Republican brand sucks when this is what the public sees. These kind of hijinks does nothing to improve it, and everybody involved acts surprised when donors and voters back away like it’s a skunk in the garage.
If your “leadership strategy” requires a bylaw brawl to function, you do not have a strategy.
In my life’s final election, I will go through the caucus and assembly process because I always have, and I respect the grassroots. But if we want to stop bleeding credibility, we should quit treating politics like an inside-baseball HOA meeting and start acting like a serious operation: clear rules, adult communication, real fundraising discipline, and measurable support for candidates.
If the party can’t sell itself to its own members, it sure as hell can’t sell itself to Colorado.
Source: Colorado Politics
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