Arapahoe County Republicans toasted an abundant slate of candidates and vowed to steer Colorado toward GOP victories this fall at the party’s annual Lincoln Day dinner on Saturday in Greenwood Village.

“We are going to turn this country around, we are going to turn this state around, and it’s all going to happen because of the work you are doing here in Arapahoe County,” said the GOP’s Senate nominee, U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Mark Udall in a tight race that could determine which party controls the Senate.

More than 400 party-goers packed a ballroom at the Doubletree Hotel Denver Tech Center — the dinner sold out for the fourth time in as many years, Arapahoe GOP chairwoman Joy Hoffman proudly announced — for dinner, a silent auction, and words from top-ticket candidates Gardner, gubernatorial nominee Bob Beauprez, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, his wife, attorney general nominee Cynthia Coffman, and El Paso County Clerk Wayne Williams, the GOP’s secretary of state candidate.

It took Hoffman more than 20 minutes to introduce everyone on the November ballot, including members of what she called “an amazing slate” of legislative candidates: Candice Benge in House District 3, Celeste Gamache in HD 9, Richard Bowman in HD 36, Jack Tate in HD 37, House Minority Kathleen Conti in HD 38, JulieMarie Shepherd in HD 40, and Molly Barrett in HD 41. Candidates in Arapahoe County included Commissioner Nancy Sharpe and the “Fab Five,” Clerk and Recorder Matt Crane, Sheriff Dave Walcher, Assessor Corbin Sakdol, Treasurer Sue Sandstrom and coroner candidate Dr. Kelly Lear-Kaul.

Cynthia Coffman told the crowd she was running to “defend TABOR, uphold our Constitution and … fight the federal government,” adding, “I’m sorry to say that, but we do.”

But she also injected some levity to her remarks, saying that just last week someone had asked her what she would be called if she wins election.

“Well, it’s ‘general,’” she said with a grin, winking at her husband, famously the only member of Congress to have served in both Iraq wars. “It’s ‘General Coffman’ — you know where this is going, don’t you?” A moment later, she concluded, “Honey, I’m thinking, since you’re a major and I’ll be a general, maybe you should call me general. But to my friends in the Arapahoe County GOP, I should be, and will always be, ‘Cynthia.’”

“None of us who are running statewide can do well without you,” said Williams, who recalled the crucial role Arapahoe County voters played 16 years ago, when the state elected its last Republican governor, Bill Owens.

Introducing Beauprez, former state Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, smiled that, as is her custom, she had searched the “deepest, darkest corners” of the Internet for some uncommon lore about the candidate. She discovered that his full name is Robert Louis Beauprez — the candidate acknowledged he was named after author Robert Louis Stevenson — and that he shares a birthday next week with the Spences’ eldest son. Under the topic “dating history,” Spence said with a chuckle, she discovered that there was only one entry, because he married his high school sweetheart, Claudia.

“Bob Beauprez is the real deal,” Spence said. “He has no hidden secrets, there are no skeletons in his closet, and we are so lucky to have him as our candidate for governor.”

“You simply can’t do the arithmetic to win statewide without doing well in Arapahoe County,” Beauprez noted. “We need Arapahoe County if we’re going to take back Colorado this year.”

Beauprez regaled the crowd with anecdotes from the previous weekend’s initial debate with Gov. John Hickenlooper in Grand Junction, where, he said, “We tested the governor just a little bit.”

At the debate, he asked Hickenlooper whether he would grant clemency to death-row inmate Nathan Dunlap, whose execution the governor put on hold last summer, to which Hickenlooper replied that he hasn’t changed his position. Beauprez characterized the answer as a “definite maybe” and then launched into his signature attack on the incumbent: “That’s the problem with John Hickenlooper. He can’t make a decision and he won’t lead. Ladies and gentlemen, if he won’t lead, I will.”

After saying it’s time the state has a governor willing to “push back on the federal government and reclaim our rightful place as a sovereign state,” Beauprez drew sustained applause from the crowd with his closing: “It’s time we stand up for this greatest state in this greatest nation ever in the history of mankind and reclaim it for the people.”

Allowing that, “the general thing is a little intimidating,” the incumbent Coffman called his wife’s race — against Democrat Don Quick — “the most impactful attorney general race in the history of the state of Colorado.” Voters will chose between a legal philosophy, he said, “where you pick and choose which laws you’re going to defend,” or his wife’s approach, “where it’s about the law.”

It’s time for the GOP to live up to its promise as “the great opportunity party,” Gardner said. “Not the party that says no, not the party that stands to obstruct, not the party that refuses to come up with ideas, but the party that provides alternatives, a better way forward, a meaningful path with real solutions. That’s what we have to be about.”

It was a busy night for party dinners. The Arapahoe County Democrats held their 8th annual Pat Schroeder Dinner at the Red Lion Hotel Southeast in Aurora and saw appearances by Hickenlooper, Udall, Romanoff and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. The party named CU Regent candidate Naquetta Ricks its rising star; Pat Shaver was named Volunteer of the Year; RTD Director Tom Tobiassen was named Democrat of the Year; and Mary Ellen Wolf won the county’s Adlai Stevenson Award. Across town, Jefferson County Democrats heard from Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore at the party’s 40th annual Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner, held at the Sheraton Denver West Hotel in Lakewood. Dennis and Maryanne Larsen won the party’s Eleanor Roosevelt Award.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com

Lori Horn and Arapahoe County Republican Party Chair Joy Hoffman greet attendees at the county party’s Lincoln Day dinner.

Photos by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

See the Sept. 19 print edition for full photo coverage.