{"id":44676,"date":"2021-09-18T02:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-republicans-who-want-to-nix-2022-primaries-say-this-group-is-manipulating-gop-races\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:20:35","slug":"colorado-republicans-who-want-to-nix-2022-primaries-say-this-group-is-manipulating-gop-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-republicans-who-want-to-nix-2022-primaries-say-this-group-is-manipulating-gop-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Republicans who want to nix 2022 primaries say this group is \u2018manipulating\u2019 GOP races"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rep.
Rep. Dave Williams, left, a Colorado Springs Republican, speaks with other lawmakers in the state Senate on May 1, 2019. (Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Republicans advocating for their party to opt out of Colorado\u2019s primary elections next year are pointing to a national group\u2019s spending in the GOP\u2019s 2020 primaries as a prime reason that selecting candidates should be kept in-house.<\/p>\n

Unite America, which operates state and federal political action committees, got involved in Republican legislative primaries last year, backing candidates for several open seats who were seen as less conservative. The group spent nearly $456,000 supporting three GOP state House candidates and two Republican state Senate candidates.<\/p>\n

All five candidates won their primaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cMillions of dollars by Democrats have been spent influencing and manipulating the outcomes of our nomination races,\u201d state Rep. Dave Williams, a Colorado Springs Republican, said during a recent debate on the issue. He supports opting out of the primary.<\/p>\n

Unite America calls itself politically neutral and both supported and opposed Democrats in 2020 primaries. Records show the group\u2019s biggest donor gave heavily to Democratic interests. But the group didn\u2019t spend millions, as William claims.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Republican Party\u2019s central committee, which has about 500 members, will vote Saturday in Pueblo on whether to opt out of the 2022 primaries and use a caucus and assembly process open only to party members. To pass, supporters need the backing of 75% of the central committee\u2019s members, which appears unlikely to happen.<\/p>\n

Republicans who oppose opting out worry that barring unaffiliated voters, who make up 43% of the state\u2019s registered voters, from the primary would damage GOP candidates in the 2022 general election. Unaffiliated voters have been allowed to participate in Colorado primaries since 2018.<\/p>\n

Unite America\u2019s PAC donations are fully disclosed to the Federal Elections Commission. And it wasn\u2019t the only super PAC involved in supporting or opposing GOP candidates in 2020, though it spent the most money.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s activities extend beyond Colorado, even though it\u2019s based in Denver, and beyond candidate contests. The group\u2019s website calls it a \u201cmovement of Democrats, Republicans and independents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Executive Director Nick Troiano said Unite America is responding to \u201cgrowing partisanship and polarization with leaders who are putting partisan interests over what\u2019s in the public interest, refusing to work together to solve problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

A rocky start for a middle-of-the-road approach<\/div>\n

Originally named the Centrist Project when it launched in 2013, Unite America moved to Denver in 2017 with a goal of supporting unaffiliated candidates in state-level contests.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t work out in Colorado in 2018.<\/p>\n

Unite Colorado, the group\u2019s state branch, supported five unaffiliated candidates running for the statehouse in Colorado and 25 other unaffiliated candidates nationwide. It spent about $300,000 in Colorado, mostly on independent advertising supporting the candidates or opposing their party-affiliated opponents, but all five of its candidates lost.<\/p>\n

A report on the efforts concluded \u201cthe midterm elections failed to demonstrate that there is any meaningful, existing constituency for centrist, independent candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Unite\u2019s involvement in the 2018 races spawned a series of campaign finance complaints, some filed by people with Democratic ties, others by a conservative activist.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Unite America and affiliated groups agreed to pay a $9,000 fine and register as a political committee. Complaints against four candidates supported by the organization were dismissed just last month with no penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe barrier to entry was larger than we even suspected,\u201d Troiano said. \u201cWe decided to focus on nonpartisan electoral reforms that could level the playing field for new competition, and on the other hand, change the incentives for Democrats and Republicans who today are much more concerned about pandering to the base of their party than reaching across the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Challenging the two-party system is difficult, said Seth Masket, a political scientist who is director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two-party system is incredibly resilient,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s based partially on the style of elections we have in this country, but also two centuries of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Unite America turned its focus to electoral reforms that might help more moderate candidates win elections. The group advocates for mail-in voting, redistricting reform, open primaries and ranked-choice voting.<\/p>\n

In 2020, for instance, Alaska adopted an open primary with the top four candidates moving to a general election with ranked-choice voting, where voters rank candidates in order of their preference. Unite America\u2019s federal PAC spent nearly $2.3 million on the effort, which some believe will help moderate Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski fend off a challenge from the right in 2022.<\/p>\n

Colorado adopted all-mail voting in 2013. In 2016, voters agreed to allow unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in either the Republican or Democratic primaries, which took effect two years later. In 2018, voters adopted two constitutional amendments creating independent commissions to redraw congressional and state legislative districts. And the state is allowing municipalities to use ranked-choice voting. Unite America supported but wasn\u2019t financially involved in those initiatives.<\/p>\n

Republicans decry outsider involvement in primaries<\/p>\n

Despite a focus on electoral reforms and the group\u2019s failures in 2018, Unite America still got involved in 2020 candidate contests \u2013 just in a different way.<\/p>\n

Unite America\u2019s federal super PAC raised $16.6 million in the 2020 election cycle, and nearly $10.6 million of that came from Kathryn Murdoch, a co-chair of Unite America\u2019s board of directors. She\u2019s married to James Murdoch, one of two sons of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch. But Kathryn and James Murdoch aren\u2019t involved in Fox News, and in recent years have turned their philanthropic efforts to battle climate change. She\u2019s also donated heavily to national Democratic PACs.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s Kent Thiry, a former DaVita CEO who spearheaded the open primaries and redistricting commission initiatives, donated $50,000 to Unite America\u2019s PAC as well.<\/p>\n

That super PAC donated nearly $758,000 to the Unite Colorado Election Fund, and the state-level super PAC, in turn, donated nearly $528,000 to a group called Coloradans for Constitutional Values, which supported Republican primary candidates. And roughly $228,000 went to Better Leaders, Better Colorado, a group that supported Democratic primary candidates in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn so many districts, the primary is the only election of consequence,\u201d Trioano told The Sun in explaining his group\u2019s strategy. \u201cPartisan primaries are fueling division and disenfranchising voters and distorting the outcomes of these elections because so few people participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Unite\u2019s involvement was part of the political drama in Weld County, where three state House and one state Senate seats, all safe for Republicans, opened up in 2020 because the incumbents were term-limited.<\/p>\n

The Unite-funded super PAC Coloradans for Constitutional Values supported two of those House candidates considered less conservative than their opponents.<\/p>\n

But Coloradans for Constitutional Values wasn\u2019t the only independent spender in state GOP primaries. Better Jobs Coalition and Ready Colorado Action Fund, both super PACs that typically support GOP candidates in the general election, also spent heavily in the Republican primaries.<\/p>\n

While the Unite America money can be traced back to donors, that\u2019s more difficult with Better Jobs Coalition and Ready Colorado. Both also operate as nonprofits that donate heavily to their super PACs, so they\u2019d be considered dark money groups since they don\u2019t reveal their donors.<\/p>\n

Dan Woog, of Erie, and Tonya Van Beber, of Eaton, and incumbents state Rep. Colin Larson, of Littleton, and Sen. Bob Rankin, of Carbondale, all won their primaries with support from Unite America funded PAC. The PAC also supported Cleave Simpson, of Alamosa, in his state Senate contest though he wasn\u2019t opposed in the primary.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat, won his primary, with support from Better Leaders, Better Colorado, while Arvada Democrat John Ronquillo lost despite the support. The PAC also supported four other Democrats who didn\u2019t face primaries and won the general election: Sen. James Coleman, of Denver, Rep. Judy Amabile, of Boulder, Rep. Jennifer Bacon, of Denver, and Rep. Lindsey Daugherty, of Arvada.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people who are going to put Colorado first and not any particular political party,\u201d said Terrance Carroll, a former Democratic state House speaker who is the director for Unite Colorado.<\/p>\n

But Williams and other Republicans advocating for their party to opt out of the 2022 primaries contend that outside groups spending money in GOP primaries dilutes their party\u2019s brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guarantee you Terrance Carroll is not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote the strongest Republican candidate who will defend the majority of, if not all, of the party platform,\u201d Williams said during the recent debate.<\/p>\n

Yet Woog voted with the conservative Colorado Union of Taxpayers 81% of the time, Van Beber 69% and Larson 60%. Woog voted \u201cyes\u201d on only 41.5% of the bills that became law this year, while Van Beber voted \u201cyes\u201d on 54% and Larson on 60.2%, according to a Colorado Sun analysis.<\/p>\n

Woog defeated Pat Miller, a former GOP House member from Erie. Miller said she doesn\u2019t want to see Republicans eliminate the primary, but she doesn\u2019t think unaffiliated voters should be allowed to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want an open primary,\u201d she said. \u201cIt should be strictly Republicans or Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

But unaffiliated voters have participated more heavily on the Democratic side in the three primaries thus far. They made up nearly 33% of the total 1.6 million primary voters in 2020, but only 25% of the nearly 591,000 Republican voters.<\/p>\n

Justin Everett, a former state lawmaker who lost to Larson in the 2020 primary, isn\u2019t a member of the Colorado GOP\u2019s central committee, but he supports the opt-out push.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to help Republicans be more electable in the general\u201d election, he said.<\/p>\n

Political scientist Masket questions that logic, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a factional dispute within the Republican Party,\u201d Masket said. \u201cYou have some of the more establishment types who want to keep the primaries\u2026 and others who are worried that they don\u2019t have the control over the party\u2019s nominees that they want. They want to move the party further right. That won\u2019t necessarily win them more statewide races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to <\/em>coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America, which calls itself a voice for political moderation, got involved in GOP legislative primaries last year. Some Republicans want to block its influence in the future<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[394,233,266,28,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86181,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44676\/revisions\/86181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44676"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}