CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Supporters of embattled Colorado GOP chairman Dave Williams on Saturday voted to keep him in his role, as as divide over leadership continues in the Colorado Republican Party.
Members of the Republican central committee voted overwhelmingly 191.5 to 10 to keep Dave Williams as the chairman. This was a closed-door meeting but a livestream shared the results and the goals behind this gathering.
Williams sent an email after the results of the meeting, stating "The majority has spoken, and your true State Party Leadership team will jealously defend these results against a vocal minority in and out of court."
Just last week, members of the Republican central committee gathered in Brighton to oust Williams along with Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman and Secretary Anna Ferguson. The outcome was also staggering, with 161.66 to 12 to remove Williams and replace him with Eli Bremer.
The Colorado GOP bylaws are ambiguous about removal. The bylaws say any elected officer can be removed "by a vote of three-fifths of the entire membership of the CRC eligible to vote at a meeting called for that purpose." It's not clear whether that means 60% of those at a called meeting, or 60% of the entire committee.
The interpretation appears to be different between the Williams and Bremer camps. Robert Preuhs, Professor and Chair of Political Science at MSU Denver, told Denver7 the stalemate is likely headed to court.
"We have these dueling claims on leadership of the GOP, and it's not really clear which one will win, probably be down to the courts, but the courts have to essentially let the GOP decide, but they haven't been able to," he said.
- Hear from Preuhs, and Eli Bremer, about the ongoing GOP duel in the video player below:
Currently, both Bremer and Williams claim to be the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. Earlier this week, Bremer filed a lawsuit against William and his allies to step down following the results of the Aug. 24 meeting.
"Well, the answer is, first of all, it doesn't matter, the Colorado Republican Party met last weekend, that was a legal meeting, it conducted the business," Bremer said. "After that, my attorney and I, on behalf of the Colorado Republican Party, filed action against the former officers in court who are now masquerading, they are not the legal officers of the party, but they're attempting to make it look that way."
As for the future of the party's leadership, it could be decided in court or by the Republican National Committee. Preuhs explained what this might look like.
"It's going to go to court," he said. "The Williams folks are going to say that the other meeting was not reasonable and was outside of the party's rules, the other side of the court makes that same contention."
In regards to a potential legal battle, Bremer shared his belief that a judge would pay attention to the opinions of their attorneys and his views on the current state of the party.
"So what this really comes down to is you have Republicans who want to work toward getting Republicans elected in this election, and then you have sort of the small insider group that's trying to hold on to power and it's all about their own personal power," said Bremer.
Denver7 reached out to Williams for further comment following the meeting and was waiting on a response Sunday night.
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